HISTORICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



IN MASSACHUSETTS, 



FROM 1620 TO 1858. 



WITH AN APPENDIX. 



JOSEPH S4CLAEK, D. D., 

SECRETARY OF THE CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 




B O 



CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 

1858. 



■^o 



&$t< 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

SEWALL HARDING, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. 






PREFACE. 



The materials of this historical sketch — for it claims not 
the dignified name of History — began to accumulate on the 
writer's hands nearly twenty years ago. Called, in 1839, to 
the Secretaryship of the Massachusetts Home Missionary 
Society, which at that time had eighty feeble churches under 
its patronage, I found a necessity laid upon me to investigate 
the causes of their weakness, in order to know how to meet 
their wants, — to look into the sources of their troubles, the 
better to relieve them. In doing this, the history of at least 
eighty churches in Massachusetts was disclosed, and the lead- 
ing facts penned down for practical use ; while many of the 
disclosures revealed antecedent facts of equal interest pertain- 
ing to the history of other churches, from which these had 
sprung. By an habitual % use of pencil and paper, with a 
natural fondness for compiling statistics, and the almost daily 
occasion for consulting them, it was found, at length, that the 
origin and general progress of nearly all the Congregational 
churches in the State had been jotted on these papers with more 
or less fulness and exactitude. A complete list, chronologi- 
cally arranged, was made out several years ago, with a view 
to exhibit at one glance the comparative progress of church 
extension at different periods; and very important help it 



IV PREFACE. 

afforded in studying the causes which have hitherto promoted 
or impeded the growth of our churches. 

Without the least idea that these researches could be of any- 
practical use to the public beyond their original aim, — to wit, 
a more capable discharge of my official duties in the service of 
home missions, — I was requested by the publishers of the 
Congregationalist to furnish a series of articles for that journal, 
giving a historical development of the Unitarian Controversy, 
which, after long repose, was then passing under review in the 
Christian Examiner. It was evident, on the slightest reflec- 
tion, that some of the remoter causes of that schism lay so far 
back that it were quite as well to begin with the first planta- 
tion of churches in New England, and trace the stream down 
from its source, — which was accordingly done in monthly 
numbers covering just ten years each. By request of many 
friends, whose judgment is wiser than mine, these are now re- 
committed to the press in their present form. 

The whole has passed through a careful revision, many 
errors corrected, and copious foot-notes added. The large 
amount of statistics brought into the sketch, and which are 
essential to its leading design, has rendered it necessary to 
condense them into the smallest possible compass. It would 
have been easier, and much more agreeable, with the stock of 
materials on hand, to spread the account of each church-gather- 
ing over a larger space ; but this would have swollen the volume 
— already too large — to an unreadable size. Instead of giv- 
ing these monotonous details for the sake of clothing the naked- 
ness of dates, — which, after all, to some readers, will possess a 
higher value, as they have cost the writer more labor than any 
thing else in the volume, — it has been thought best to insert oc- 






PREFACE. V 

casional notes, where noteworthy facts transpired in connection 
with the founding of a church. Sentences have also been 
stricken out, and paragraphs inserted, in the body of the book, 
wherever additional light seemed to demand it. 

The author is under great obligations to those ministers 
and laymen in various parts of the State who have kindly 
furnished him the correct names and dates, which he had 
either omitted or erroneously stated in the newspaper articles 
which fell under their eye. Especially deserving of grateful 
acknowledgments are the favors received from J. Win gate 
Thornton, Esq., and Dr. J. B. Felt, of Boston, in the loan 
of rare books and manuscripts. But it is to the collections 
of the Congregational Library Association that he is most 
deeply indebted for aid in preparing this sketch. Probably 
there is no place in New England where statistical information 

— particularly such as relates to the Congregational churches 

— can be found in equal fulness ; for, in addition to its own 
appropriate store, it has also, on deposit, the entire library of 
the American Statistical Society. 

The volume, such as it is, the author commits to the public 
with the earnest prayer and devout hope that it may subserve 
the Redeemer's cause, by " showing to the generations to come 
the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful 
works that he hath done, — that they may set their hope in 
God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his command- 
ments." It has been his honest aim to " stand in the ways, 
and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way ; " 
and, to omit nothing which may induce the churches to " walk 
therein, and find rest to their souls," he has been particular 
to set up a finger-board at the entrance of each devious path, 
so far as the spot can be pointed out. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

1620-1630. 
Design of the author. — Origin of John Robinson's church. — Removal to Hol- 
land and America. — Churches planted in Salem, Dorchester, Boston-, 
and Watertown. — Dr. Fuller's agency in giving them a Congregational 
form. — Mode of covenanting. — The state eliminated from the church 

Page 1-13 

CHAPTER II. 

1630-1640. 

Gathering of twenty-four churches. — Character of their founders. — Gradual 

development of the Congregational polity. — Scriptural model copied. — 

Uniformity, how secured. — Jealousy of the brotherhood about the liberties 

of churches. — Antinomian controversy. — Harvard College founded 14-30 

CHAPTER III. 

1640-1650. 
Fifteen churches added. — Lay ordination discontinued. — New England habits 
become settled. — Character of the ministry. — Catechizing the children. — 
Salaries of ministers, how raised. — Cambridge Platform constructed. — 
Presbyterian tendencies derived from the Westminister Assembly. — Fun- 
damental principle of Congregationalism asserted . . . 31-43 

CHAPTER IV. 

1650-1660. 
Only four churches added during this decade. — Indian missions, an early 
endeavor. — The Mayhews on Martha's Vineyard, and Eliot on the main. 
— Their great success. — Society for propagating the Gospel formed in 
England to aid the work. — Home Missions. — Quaker troubles. — Minis- 
terial support by law. — Brief biographic notices of the chief Fathers 

44-59 



V1U CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

1660-1670. 
Gathering of twelve churches. — Eise of the Baptists. — Apology for their 
intolerant treatment. — Synod of 1622. — Half-way covenant, its introduc- 
tion, and mischievous effects. — The Regicides, and the protection they re- 
ceived from Davenport and Russell. — Colonel Goffe's journal and corre- 
spondence 60-77 

CHAPTER VI. 

1670-1680. 
Only three churches gathered. — Indian war. — Character of " King Philip." 
— Perils of the Colonies. — Edward Randolph. — Controversy about the 
subject of Baptism. — Synodists and anti-synodists. — The Half-way cove- 
nant goes into practice. — Reforming synod, its happy influence. — Various 
customs peculiar to the age 78-93 

CHAPTER VII. 

1680-1690. 
Six churches gathered. — "Branch" churches, designed to meet the wants 
now met by domestic missions. — Political troubles. —End of the Puritan 
commonwealth. — Sir Edmund Andros' tyranny. — Opposition of John 
Wise, and the ministers generally. — The provincial government favorable 
to Congregationalism . . . 94-102 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1690-1700. 
Eleven churches gathered. — Salem witchcraft. — Change in conducting ec- 
clesiastical affairs. — Comparative strength of the different denominations 
in Massachusetts, — in New England. — Influence of Calvinism and Puri- 
tan Congregationalism on the New England character. — Remarks on 
Oliver's " Puritan Commonwealth " 103-111 

CHAPTER IX. 

1700-1710. 
Eight churches gathered. — Reasons for so few. — Second type of Home Mis- 
sions. — Sixteen "Proposals" of Boston ministers. — John Wise assails 
them. — " Churches' Quarrel espoused," and " Vindication of the Govern- 
ment of New England Churches." — Magical effect of these productions. — 
Solomon Stoddard. — Evil effect of his well-meant innovation . 112-122 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER X. 

1710-1720. 
The gathering of thirty-eight churches. — Reasons for so many. — " Conven- 
tion of Congregational ministers," its origin and objects. — Contention in 
the New North church, Boston. — Great principles involved in the contro- 
versy. — The rights of Congregational churches maintained in the issue. — 
Views of Ware and Bobbins 123-135 

CHAPTER XI. 

1720-1730. 
Thirty-five churches organized. — Symptoms of spiritual declension. — Dead 
Orthodoxy, and mistaken remedy for it. — Inadequate salaries. — " Shady- 
side " literature. — Abortive attempt to hold a general synod. — Causes of 
the failure. — Salutary effect of abandoning that mode of relief 136-147 

CHAPTER XII. 

I 

1730-1740. 
Forty-five churches gathered. — Presby terianism. — Samuel Mather's " Apol- 
ogy for the Liberties of the Churches." — " Great Awakening." — Jona- 
than Edwards and the revival at Northampton. — Prevalence of Armin- 
ianism arrested. — " Narrative of Surprising Conversions." — Its influence 
in preparing the way for a more geveral revival . . . 148-159 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1740-1750. 
Organization of forty-five churches. — Friendly relations of Congregationalists 
and Presbyterians. — George Whitefield's first visit to New England, and the 
effects of his labors. — Gilbert Tennant. — James Davenport, and the Sep- 
aratists. — Strife of parties. — Whitefield's second visit. — His antagonists. 
— Estimate of the revival 160-173 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1750-1760. 
Religious declension. — Sixteen churches gathered. — Influence of the French 
war in retarding church extension. — Legislative enactments against relig- 
ious disorders. — Edwards and Chauncy, the two antagonist champions. — 
Symptoms of Unitarianism. — Correspondence of Edwards and Wiggles- 
worth on the subject. — Removal of Edwards from Northampton 174-190 

i 1 
i . 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XV. 

1760-1770. 
Thirty-one churches organized. — Comparison of the several denominations 
in New England. — State of morals at the opening of the Revolutionary war. 

— Christian doctrine and church polity at that time. — Outcropping of 
Unitarianism. — Probable reason why the Unitarian controversy did not 
then break forth 191-199 

CHAPTER XVI. 

1770-1780. 
Twenty-two churches gathered. — Six extinct churches. — Old usages becom- 
ing obsolete. — Ministers taking part in politics. — Election sermons. — 
Ministers in the army. — John Adams's testimony to their influence in se- 
curing Independence. — Controversy between the Bolton church and their 
pastor. — Claim of the veto power by Rev. Mr. Goss . . 200-214 

CHAPTER XVII. 

1780-1790. 
Gathering of twenty-two churches. — Disastrous effects of the Revolutionary 
war on the churches. — Rise of Universalists in Massachusetts. — First 
Roman Catholic church. — Unitarianism in King's Chapel. — Third Article 
in the Bill of Rights. — Congregational Charitable Society incorporated 

215-223 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

1790-1800. 
Fifteen churches gathered. — Comparative numbers in the different denomi- 
nations. — Rise of the Methodists. — Presbyterianism in disfavor. — Licens- 
ing candidates for the ministry. — Theatricals first introduced into Boston. 

— Massachusetts Home Missionary Society founded. — Revivals near the 
close of the last century, and their effects .... 224-231 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1800-1810. 
Nineteen churches organized. — Separations in churches on doctrinal grounds. 

— Harvard College lost to the Evangelical party. — Andover Theological 
Seminary founded. — The A. B. C. F. Missions constituted. — General As- 
sociation of Massachusetts formed. — Various benevolent societies. — First 
religious periodical . . . 232-243 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XX. 

1810-1820. 
Open avowal of Unitarianism. — Twenty-six churches organized, several by- 
secession. — Startling disclosures from England. — The Unitarian contro- 
versy fairly opened. — Legal decisions against the Orthodox. — Conse- 
quence of these decisions. — Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts 
instituted. — Boston Recorder started. — Various Benevolent Societies 
formed. — Final attempt at consociation 244-254 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1820-1830. 

Ninety-seven churches organized. — Secessions multiply. — Mode of conducting 

the controversy. — Unitarians get possession of old meeting-houses, and the 

Orthodox build new ones. — Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts 

formed by the General Association. — u Spirit of the Pilgrims " established. 

— Amherst College founded. — Church conferences organized 255-265 

CHAPTER XXII. 

1830-1840. 
Eighty churches gathered. — The controversy closed, and its results esti- 
mated. — Pecuniary losses of the Orthodox, and their gain in other respects. 

— Report on " exiled churches." — Unitarians become a distinct denomina- 
tion, and are dropped from this sketch in its subsequent details 266-276 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

1840-1857. 
One hundred and three churches gathered. — Extinct churches, various causes 
of. — Comparative view of the different denominations in Massachusetts. — 
Theological questions. — Moral reforms. — Church polity. — Pastoral As- 
sociation. — Congregational Library Association, its origin and aims 

277-288 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Practical reflections. — 1. Puritanism and Calvinism, the soul and body of 
New England Congregationalism. — ■ 2. Originated not in pride, but humil- 
ity. — 3. Wherein its efficiency resides. — 4. The process through which 
these churches have lapsed. — 5. Their recuperative power. — 6. Means of 
promoting their progress. — 7. Responsibility of the present generation 

289-298 



Xll CONTENTS. 



APPENDIX. 

I. Report on Exiled Churches 299-313 

II. Councils 313-318 

III. Civil Rights of the Churches 318-335 

Index of Churches, 337-340 

General Index, 341-344 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 



1620-30. 



Design of the author. — Origin of John Robinson's church. — Removal to Hol- 
land and America. — Churches planted in Salem, Dorchester, Boston, and 
Watertown. — Dr. Fuller's agency in giving them a Congregational form. — 
Mode of covenanting. — The state eliminated from the church. 

It is proposed, in the following pages, to sketch the 
origin and progress of the Congregational churches in 
Massachusetts, with particular reference to the causes 
which have contributed to their growth, decline, and 
recovery. Every one knows that the religious and eccle- 
siastical history of New England, and more especially 
of this State, is greatly diversified. Lights and shad- 
ows flit across our path, as, commencing with the plan- 
tation of these churches, we follow them through a 
short, bright day of Puritan development into Antino- 
mian fogs and fens, from which, soon emerging, they 
sink, by slow degrees, into spiritual slumber. Then 
comes the " great awakening," which is followed by a 
great declension ; and this by a great recovery, as the 
process may well be called, through which a covenant- 
keeping God has been bringing back their captivity 
during the last thirty years. The circumstances, or 
rather the causative conditions, on which the changing 



2 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

fortunes of these churches have turned, cannot be 
studied without profit. No theorizing about the fitness 
or unfitness of the Congregational church polity, no 
dogmatizing about the moral tendencies of Calvinism 
or its opposites, is half so helpful to a practical mind 
searching after truth on these points, as the simple his- 
torical facts which such a study would unfold. The 
design of this sketch is to aid such minds, by present- 
ing a summary view of these facts in the order of their 
occurrence. 

As the gathering of a Christian church in a world 
like this is an epoch of vast importance, not only to all 
succeeding generations of its members, but also to the 
whole fraternity of churches with which it affiliates, the 
date of each organization will be inserted, as far as it 
can be, together with whatever noteworthy facts stand 
connected therewith. In this feature of it, the sketch 
will be found to exhibit a chronological view of church 
extension among us, and, in some sense, the genealogy 
of the churches. 

But inasmuch as questions of doctrine and duty, of 
church polity and religious worship, have entered large- 
ly into the life-history of these churches, affecting their 
essential character and condition, these will be noticed 
as they arise, and their influence shown, so far as facts 
will show T it. And if any of these questions, of earlier 
or later times, have run into controversies which have 
ended in quarrels and schisms, it is hoped that a truth- 
ful statement may be given without offence. The 
great purposes of Providence in the history of this world 
would be but half answ r ered, should the historian record 
only the better side of it, — holding up such examples 
before us as are worthy of imitation, and skipping such 
as ought to be shunned. Inde tibi tuaque reipublicce^ 
quod imitate, capias ; inde fcedum inceptu, fcedum exitu, 
quod vites. 

There are plenty of people in our day who know, or 
seem to know, just what our Puritan fathers would be, 
were they to live in this age of the world; just what 
they would do and teach, could they but return to earth, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 3 

and resume their functions amid the light of the nine- 
teenth century. But it very much lessens the value of 
such knowledge to find hardly any two exactly agreed 
about it ; and, especially, to find that each one's own 
peculiar notions of morals and religion and theology 
are just the notions which he is sure those fathers would 
now adopt and teach. If any one wishing to exercise 
his imagination is pleased to try it on such subjects, let 
him do so. Let him fancy (if he can) the stern virtues 
of Elder Brewster and Gov. Winthrop relaxing into the 
easy morals that suit him ; or their hard-twisted, five- 
ply theology transformed into the slazy texture of his 
own. But in this harmless reverie, pray let him not 
forget that it was the real, and not the imaginary, Puri- 
tan whose achievements now challenge the admira- 
tion of the world, and make a chapter in its history. 
"Whether the early settlers of New England, and found- 
ers of her Congregational churches, were of a make to 
veer about with the changing winds and currents of the 
times, the veritable facts will show, without the aid of 
fancy ; as also, whether this facile disposition (in rather 
sad contrast with their fixedness of principle) be not 
found among some of their descendants. 

New England owes its settlement, and the Congrega- 
tional churches of New England their type and char- 
acter, to that purely religious movement which brought 
to these shores a portion of Rev. John Robinson's con- 
gregation in quest of " freedom to worship God/' 
Constituted a church by solemn covenant in 1602,* at 



* This is the year assigned by Morton (N. E. Memorial, p. 9) , 
though Bradford, whom he closely copies, mentions no date. Prince 
accepts it in his Chronology, and supposes that " Mr. Secretary 
Morton had the account either from some other writings of Gov. 
Bradford, the journals of Gov. Winslow, or from oral conference 
with them, or other of the first planters; with some of whom he was 
contemporary, and from whence, he tells us, he received his intelli- 
gence." (p. 100.) The statement of Bradford, after alluding to the 
tyrannous exactions imposed by the " commission courts" on such as 
" began to reform their lives and make conscience of their ways," 
is in these words : " So many, therefore, of these professors as saw 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



the little town of Scrooby, in the north of England, 
they had been harassed for six years by fines and im- 
prisonments in their native land, and had afterwards 



the evil of these things, in these parts, and whose hearts the Lord 
had touched with heavenly zeal for his truth, they shook off this yoke 
of an ti- Christian bondage, and, as the Lord's free people, joined 
themselves (by covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in the 
fellowship of the Gospel, to walk in all his ways, made known or to 
be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, what- 
soever it should cost them." (Bradford's Hist. Plym. Plantation, 
p. 9.) It should be observed, that this first confederation em- 
braced the neuclei of two churches ; the distance which some of 
the members, scattered over the adjacent parts of three counties, 
lived from Elder Brewster's house, where they all met for worship at 
first, rendering it necessary at length to divide. One of these bodies, 
under the pastorship of Rev. John Smyth, emigrated to Holland in 
1606, and soon after disappeared. The other, known as Mr. Robin- 
son's congregation, without any apparent change in their ecclesiasti- 
cal organism, continued to meet for worship at Mr. Brewster's, in 
Scrooby, Basset-Lawe, till, in 1607 and 1608, they, too, found refuge 
in Holland. 

" It is certainly a very remarkable circumstance (apart from the 
consideration of the very important consequences which ensued upon 
it), that there should have arisen among such a population as that of 
Basset-Lawe, a spirit so strong and so determined, or that it could 
have been induced to enter such a field of controversy at all. And 
it becomes the more remarkable, when we observe how few persons 
in those times had, in any part of the country, separated themselves 
from the church, and formed themselves into single, self-directed 
communities. Not but that in most other parts of the kingdom the 
Puritan objections to the ceremonies were felt by many minds, and 
many were the persons who would gladly have seen the yoke of cere- 
monies removed ; but there is a great difference between the uneasi- 
ness in a forced acquiescence, and the actual withdrawing from all 
communion, throwing off the authority of the church, and the author- 
ity of the State too, as far as respected affairs of religion. The 
Separatist was a Puritan, but the Puritan was not necessarily a Sepa- 
ratist ; and the extraordinary feature in this case is, that the Puritan- 
ism of Basset-Lawe was so deep a sentiment that it urged so many 
to the act of separation, and afterwards to the desperate measure of 
emigration, while in other parts of the country, with few exceptions, 
though there were Puritan emigrants who sought relief from the 
ceremonies and subscriptions, there were few or none who had, 
while at home, entered into church union, as the Scrooby people did, 
and then took their departure, a compact and united body." — Hunt- 
er's " Founders of New Plymouth," pp. 26, 27. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 5 

sojourned twelve years in Holland as " strangers and 
pilgrims," when they landed on Plymouth Rock, Decem- 
ber 22,* 1620 ; the first church in Massachusetts, the 
first in New England ; and for the space of nine dreary 
years, the only Protestant church throughout this west- 
ern hemisphere, excepting perhaps the remains of an 
Episcopal organization in the almost deserted plantation 
at Jamestown, Virginia.f Their beloved pastor, who 



* An unfortunate mistake of one day has lately been discovered 
by learned chronologists, in translating " Dec. 11, 1620," old style, 
into the corresponding date of the new; and attempts are being 
made to change Forefathers 9 Day from the 2 2d to the 21st. But, 
like the error of four years in the Christian era, the Twenty- 
Second of December has become so embedded in the memory, — 
so sacred in the hearts of millions, — that it seems a profanation, al- 
most, to give it up, though it be satisfactorily shown that it is one day 
after the real " Landing of the Pilgrims." The event itself will be 
commemorated as long as the world revolves ; and so should be the 
incidents of the day preceding. Mr. Prince, quoting Bradford, 
gives the following brief but suggestive account of those incidents : 
44 December 9 [Saturday]. In the morning they find the place to be 
a small island, [viz. Clark's Island, at the entrance of Plymouth har- 
bor, upon which they were thrown during the stormy night preced- 
ing,] secure from the Indians. And this being the last day of the 
week, they here dry their stuff, fix their pieces, rest themselves, re- 
turn God thanks for their many deliverances ; and here the next day 
keep their Christian Sabbath." (p. 167.) Why has no painter im- 
mortalized his name, by transferring to canvas this Sabbath scene, 
the first ever witnessed on the shores of New England ? As an illus- 
tration of real Puritanism, nothing can exceed it. We see them 
now, in imagination, grouped in devout posture around a forest fire, 
while "Deacon" Carver, the newly elected governor, reads from 
his pocket Bible an appropriate chapter, and "lines" a favorite 
psalm, which gives vent to full-hearted and high-sounding praise. 
We hear the fervent prayers and earnest prophesyings of Bradford 
and Winslow, who, though yet young men, are much experienced in 
these exercises. We behold the solemnity that rests even on the 
sailor's rough countenance, as, silently musing on the perils recently 
passed, he participates in the service, while not a rising cloud, nor 
breaking wave, nor frightened sea-gull, escapes his ever watchful eye. 

f The settlers of Jamestown were as exclusively Episcopal, as 
those of Plymouth were Puritan, and appear to have had preachers 
of that order sent among them from time to time, prior to this date ; 
but the most diligent search has not disclosed the existence of any 
ecclesiastical organization, properly so called. 



6 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

staid behind, " as a man divided in himself with great 
pain," till the remainder of his flock could come, was 
never permitted to accompany them. To their unspeak- 
able grief, he died in Holland, March 1, 1625, after a 
short sickness, at the age of fifty. As Moses was 
released from his charge, when he had conducted the 
children of Israel within sight of Canaan, so fell the 
leader of this pilgrim band, when through long wander- 
ings and many perils he had brought them within a 
step of their destined home. Nor did the tide of his in- 
fluence, more than that of Moses, stop at his death. It 
has been rising ever since, and will never ebb. The 
practices and opinions of John Robinson, more than 
those of any other man, have shaped the institutions of 
New England, though he never set foot on her soil. So 
deeply had his congregation drank at the fountain of his 
wisdom, and so fully had they imbibed his spirit, that 
the Plymouth church, without his presence, and for a 
long time without any resident pastor at all, still pre- 
served the polity which he had prescribed, and was the 
model after which the others were formed, as will 
appear in the sequel of this sketch.* 

The second church that sprang up on these shores 
was gathered at Salem, August 6, 1629. A small com- 
pany, with Roger Conant at their head, had located on 
this spot some three years before ; which was increased 
by the arrival of Gov. Endicott and his associates in 



* They had their ruling elder, it is true, whose office combined 
the preacher's duties also when occasion required, in accordance 
with Mr. Robinson's interpretation of 1 Tim. 5 : 17; but he was not 
authorized to administer the sacrament. This privation became 
grievous, at length, to the Pilgrims in their lone wilderness home, and 
very naturally suggested the idea of adding that much to the func- 
tions of the elder. But the pastor objected. In a letter to Mr. 
Brewster, dated March 20, 1623, Mr. Robinson says: "Now touch- 
ing the question propounded by you, I judge it not lawful for you, 
being a ruling elder, as Rom. 12:7, 8, and 1 Tim. 5:17, opposed to 
the elders that teach and exhort, and labor in word and doctrine, to 
which the sacraments are annexed, to administer them, nor conven- 
ient if it were lawful." — Young's Chron. p. 477. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 7 

1628. But a much larger accession was made a few- 
weeks prior to the organization of this church, in com- 
pany with Messrs. Skelton and Higginson, who were 
ordained the same day, — the former as pastor, the latter 
as teacher. There is ample evidence that these Salem 
planters, Puritans and Nonconformists as they were, 
had no thought of separating from the church of Eng- 
land when they left home. But the Plymouth doctor, 
Mr. Samuel Fuller, was sent for at a time of prevailing 
sickness among them ; and being a deacon, as well as a 
doctor, in such a church as Mr. Robinson's, he was not 
unqualified to prescribe for spiritual ailments also, 
where there was need. On his return from Salem, 
Gov. Endicott wrote to his brother governor at Ply- 
mouth, " I acknowledge myself much bound to you for 
your kind love and care in sending Mr. Fuller amongst 
us, and rejoice much that I am by him satisfied touch- 
ing your form of outward worship ; it is no other, as I 
can gather, than is warranted by the evidence of truth, 
— being far from the common report that hath been 
spread of you." ( Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. III. 66.) And even 
Mr. Higginson, who, on his voyage hither, wrote, "We 
do not go to New England as separatists from the 
church of England, though we cannot but separate 
from corruptions of it," in less than six weeks after his 
arrival, was drawing up a " Confession of Faith and 
Covenant " for a separate and independent church. 
(Felt's Hist. Vol. I. 110, 116.) 

On the 6th of June, 1630, the first church in Dorches- 
ter, having been regularly organized in March preceding, 
at the new hospital of Plymouth, England, as a prelim- 
inary step to their emigration (Felt's Hist. Vol. I. 129), 
fixed their residence in that place, called by the natives 
Mattapan. Before leaving England, they chose Messrs. 
John Maverick and John Warham * for their ministers, 
who, though they both had received Episcopal ordina- 



* " The first preacher," Cotton Mather supposes, " that ever 
preached with notes in our New England." — Mag. Vol. I. p. 399. 



8 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

tion, were reordained. The ministers and members of 
this Dorchester church appear to have been sufficiently- 
Congregational in their outward form. But the Ply- 
mouth doctor, going among them to " let blood," soon 
after their arrival, found enough to do in getting them 
right on another point, which tried him sorely. " I had 
conference with them," he says in a letter to Gov. Brad- 
ford, " till I was weary. Mr. Warham holds that the 
visible church may consist of a mixed people, godly and 
openly ungodly ; upon which point we had all our con- 
ference, to which I trust the Lord will give a blessing." 
The sequel shows that he was not disappointed, for 
nothing more was heard of this mixing up of godly and 
ungodly members in the church of Christ. (Mass. Hist. 
Coll. Vol. III. 74.) 

The next two churches were gathered on the same 
day, July 30, 1630, out of Gov. Winthrop's large com- 
pany of fifteen hundred souls, who arrived in the early 
part of June, — the one at Charlestown, over whom 
Rev. John Wilson was duly installed on the 27th of 
August following ; the other at Watertown, with Rev. 
George Phillips for their pastor. But as Shawmut, the 
Indian name of a peninsula directly across the river, 
was thought to be a healthier location than Charles- 
town, the church that had been planted in this latter 
place, including the governor and all the principal 
inhabitants, removed thither in the course of three 
months, and thus became the First church in Boston, — 
a name given in honor of Rev. John Cotton, then a 
minister of Boston, England, but soon to be driven 
from his home there to a new home of the same name 
here. 

And it is deserving of notice, that (as at the begin- 
ning of Salem and Dorchester) the Plymouth Church, 
through her indefatigable and ubiquitous Dr. Fuller, 
had an important influence in shaping the form and 
character of these churches also. Separation, not from 
the church of England, but from its corruptions, was all 
that Governor Winthrop and his company of Puritans 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. V 

were intending, when they took leave of their friends at 
home, as is rendered certain by their parting address on 
that occasion. (Hubbard in 2 Massachusetts Hist. Coll. 
Vol. V. 126.) It was not without painful surprise, there- 
fore, that on arriving at Salem they found their friends, 
who had preceded them, turned " separatists," — as the 
followers of Robinson were still called in England, — a 
Congregational church already organized on the princi- 
ple of non-communion with non-reformed churches, and 
reinvesting with the sacred office, ministers who had 
been Episcopally ordained. They even sent back com- 
plaints, which, on coming to Mr. Cotton's ears, called 
forth a reproving letter from him to Mr. Skelton, in 
which he says : " You went hence of another judgment, 
and I am afraid your change hath sprung from New 
Plymouth men, whom I esteem as godly and loving 
Christians ; yet their grounds, which they have received 
for this tenet from Mr. Robinson, do not justify me, 
though the man I reverence as godly and learned." 
Mr. Cotton had guessed the true source of this change. 
As before intimated, Dr. Fuller, who had been so help- 
ful to Endicott and the Salem folks, was called to pre- 
scribe for the sick and inquiring among Governor 
"Winthrop's company also ; and in a letter to Bradford, 
written as early as June 28th, scarcely a month after 
their arrival, he reports, with much apparent satisfac- 
tion, "one Mr. Phillips (a Suffolk man), who hath told 
me in private, that if they will have him stand minister, 
by that calling which he received from the prelates in 
England, he will leave them." In the same letter he 
adds, " The governor hath had conference with me, both 
in private and before sundry others." About a month 
later, when they were trying to settle upon some eccle- 
siastical basis, he and two other Plymouth brethren 
being on hand, "they would do nothing," says he, 
" without our advice ; requiring our voices as their own, 
when it was concluded that the Lord was to be sought 
in righteousness." ( Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. III. 74.) The 
result, as we have seen, was^in the main, a Congrega- 
tional platform, which Mr. Cotton himself, after his 



10 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

arrival, was more instrumental than any other man in 
perfecting.* 



* In that bitter dose which Robert Baylie administers to the Inde- 
pendents, in his " Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time," wherein 
it is not easy, nor very important, to determine whether fallacy or 
falsehood is the larger ingredient, there are mixed some grains of 
truth. Here is one : " Master Robinson did derive his way to his 
separate congregation at Leyden ; a part of them did carry it over 
to Plymouth in New England ; here Master Cotton did take it up 
and transmit it from thence to Master Goodwin [of London], who did 
help to propagate it to sundry others of Old England first, and after, 
to more in Holland, till now, by many hands, it is sown thick in 
divers parts of this kingdom." (p. 54.) Although Mr. Cotton, in his 
reply, modestly declines the unintended honor of exerting such a 
mighty influence over England, Holland, and America, yet he pro- 
duces no facts to show that Baylie is not essentially correct in this 
" pedigree," as he calls it, of our denomination. It is quite clear 
from the facts above given, that the New Plymouth church did 
" leaven all the vicinity ; " and scarcely less so, that Congregational- 
ism in England owed its permanent establishment, if not its origin, 
to the able teachings and practical illustrations derived from this side 
of the water. Speaking of " The fruits of Congregational discipline 
in our churches in New England," Mr. Cotton says, in his reply to 
the aspersions of this writer (p. 102), u Fourthly, it hath been also a 
testimony from heaven of God's blessing upon our way, that many 
thousands in England, in all the quarters of the kingdom, have been 
awakened to consider of the cause of church-discipline, for which we 
have suffered this hazardous and voluntary banishment into this re- 
mote wilderness : and have, therefore, by letters conferred with us 
about it, and been (through mercy) so far enlightened, as to desire 
an utter subversion of Episcopacy and conformity ; yea, and the 
honorable houses of parliament, the Lord hath been pleased to help 
them so far to consider of our sufferings, and of the causes thereof, 
as to conclude a necessity of reformation of the ecclesiastical state 
(amongst other causes), so by reason of the necessity put upon so 
many English subjects to depart from all our employments and en- 
joyments in our native country, for conscience's sake." To the same 
purpose, though under another head, namely, " The fruits of Congre- 
gational discipline in England" the writer adds : " If books and letters 
and reports do not too much abuse us with false intelligence, the great 
and gracious and glorious victories, whereby the Lord hath wrought 
salvation for England in these late wars, have been as so many testi- 
monies of the blessing of God upon our way. For the chiefest instru- 
ments, which God hath delighted to use herein, have been the faith and 
fidelity, the courage and constancy, of Independents. And when I 
say Independents, I mean not those corrupt sects and heresies which 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 11 

As the gathering of these five churches, during the 
first ten years, was the foundation-work of the whole 
superstructure, civil and religious, that has since risen 
up among us, let us glance back and group together in 
one view the characteristics of this foundation. We 
shall the better understand some peculiar phases of our 
ecclesiastical history. We find here several different 
companies of men, come from different parts of Eng- 
land, with differing views on many other subjects, but 
all united in the one fixed purpose of seeking a purer 
worship and a holier life. Drawn or driven into the 
same wide wilderness by the force of this one idea, 
they combine in separate and independent bodies for 
its development, each company according to their own 
free choice ; and yet these new and separate organisms 
all have one marked feature alike, namely, a mutual 
covenant, written and subscribed, binding the members 
severally " to walk according to the rule of the gospel," 
or " to walk in all the ways of God made known, or to 
be made known unto them, according to the best of 
their endeavors, whatever it may cost them ; " or, " to 
believe in, love, serve, and obey him sincerely, according 
to his word, against all the temptations of the devil, the 
world, and their own flesh, and this unto death ; " or, 
" to renounce all idolatry and superstition, all human 
traditions and inventions whatsoever in the worship of 
God, and serve him faithfully in all matters concerning 
our reformation;" for all these different modes of ex- 
pressing the same general idea are found in their cove- 
nants. And none were received into the sacred com- 
pact who could not produce satisfactory evidence of a 
work of grace on the heart, — unless the Dorchester 
church, for a short time, formed an exception. 

As to their particular manner of coming into cove- 



shroud themselves under the vast title of Independency, and in the 
mean time cast off all church-government, and churches too; but 
such as profess the kingdom of Christ in the government of each 
holy congregation of saints within themselves." (p. 103.) 



12 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

nant, there was sufficient diversity to show that while 
all the churches were moved by the same spirit, and 
aimed at the same point, each was led along as an in- 
dependent inquirer after the right way. The members 
of the Plymouth and Dorchester churches were em- 
bodied before their emigration, probably all who were 
prepared to unite joining at the same time. In regard 
to the Salem church, thirty individuals were designated 
" to begin the work," and thirty copies of Mr. Higgin- 
son's confession of faith and covenant were written out 
beforehand for their use. These having entered into 
solemn covenant, and thus become a church, received 
others on examination. The Boston church was con- 
stituted of only four original members, namely, Gov. 
Winthrop, Lieut.-Gov. Dudley, Mr. Isaac Johnson, and 
Rev. John Wilson. After two days five more " sub- 
scribe the sacred compact." Very soon their number 
increased to "sixty-four males and half as many 
females." The Watertown church began with forty 
members. These various methods of procedure are 
interesting, as showing the independent processes of 
thought and inquiry, through which the great principles 
of our Congregational polity were evolved, — "diversities 
of operations, but the same God working all in all." 
And this remark will apply also to the early methods of 
ordaining pastors and teachers. 

These five churches, thus constituted, took into their 
own hands the selection and settlement of their minis- 
ters. However much of a common-sense and matter- 
of-course aspect this circumstance may have, as seen 
from our stand-point, it was at that time a new and im- 
portant step, and led to others still more important. 
How long could these independent and self-gathered 
churches go on choosing their own pastors, prescribing 
their own rules of discipline, and managing their own 
affairs in their own way, before this democratic spirit 
would show itself in other relations of society? — es- 
pecially when all these other relations were supposed to 
exist solely for the sake of the church. It is an unques- 
tionable fact, that the right of popular suffrage found 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 13 

its way to these shores from the north of England, 
through Holland, in Mr. Robinson's congregation, and 
crept into our civil government through the preestab- 
lished usage of the Congregational churches. (Baylies' 
Hist. I. 30.) Our great republic owes its origin, not to 
Greece nor Rome, nor to the immortal George Wash- 
ington, even ; it sprang up spontaneously from that sys- 
tem of church polity which our New England fathers 
deduced from the Bible ; and was in practical opera- 
tion, so far as colonial dependence would allow, a hun- 
dred and fifty years before the name itself was an- 
nounced to the world. 

And here, in these first developments of republican- 
ism, we find the solution of a vexed point in our early 
legislation, — the strange confusion, as it strikes many, 
of things sacred and things secular, which has given 
rise to So many bitter sarcasms against our fathers, for 
attempting to unite church and state. Any intelligent 
person who will look at the facts will see that it was 
not the church allying itself to the state, but a state 
growing out of the church, which occasioned the seem- 
ing jumble of ecclesiastical and civil affairs, — a condi- 
tion of things almost inevitable while the great interests 
of religion, as centred in the church, were about the 
only subjects requiring legislation ; and while the state, 
as such, was in its nonage. And when the two, in sub- 
sequent time, became distinct, as we now see them, the 
thing which actually happened was not a divorcement 
of the church from the state, but an elimination of the 
state from the church. This fact must be borne in 
mind as we proceed, or we shall never come to a right 
understanding of our fathers or their institutions. 



14 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER II. 

1630-1640. 

Gathering of twenty-four churches. — Character of their founders. — Gradual 
development of the Congregational polity. — Scriptural model copied. — Uni- 
formity, how secured. — Jealousy of the brotherhood about the liberties of 
churches. — Antinomian controversy. — Harvard College founded. 

During the next period of ten years, — from 1630 to 
1640, — twenty-four churches were organized within the 
present limits of Massachusetts, on the same general 
basis with the preceding five, and in the following 
order. 

The First church in Roxbury was embodied in July, 
1632, with seventeen male members dismissed from the 
Dorchester church for that purpose, having Rev. Messrs. 
Thomas Weld and John Eliot for their first ministers, — 
the former ordained as pastor, the latter as teacher, 
according the custom of that day.* 

The church in Lynn commenced in August, the same 
year (1632), with the arrival of Rev. Stephen Bachellor, 
seventy-one years old, and six members of his former 
charge in England, whom he constituted a church with 
but little formality, and became their pastor with still 
less. This occasioned a questioning afterwards whether 
they were a real church ; which at length was settled 



* According to the Cambridge Platform, "the pastor's special 
work is to attend to exhortation, and therein to administer a word 
of wisdom ; the teacher is to attend to doctrine, and therein to ad- 
minister a word of knowledge ; and either of them to administer the 
seals of that covenant unto the dispensation whereof they are alike 
called." All this appears to us like a distinction without a difference. 
Practically these two officers were colleague pastors, as we should 
now call them. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 15 

affirmatively, on the principle that " after consent and 
practice of church estate " had supplied all defects in 
the organization. 

The church in Duxbury was formed out of the 
Plymouth church during the same year, though without 
any settled pastor till the arrival of Ralph Partridge, in 
1636. 

The South church in Marshfield was also gathered 
from the Plymouth church in 1632, being supplied in 
part with preaching by Rev. Richard Blinman, from 
Wales, and in part with " prophesying," by " a few 
gifted brethren," till the ordination of Rev. Edward 
Bulkley as their first pastor, in 1642. 

The church that was gathered at Charlestown, July 
30, 1630, having soon after removed its place of wor- 
ship, and become the First church in Boston, where the 
inhabitants of both places had ever since assembled for 
worship, thirty-three members living on the Charlestown 
side were regularly dismissed, and formed into the 
present First church in that place, November 2, 1632. 
On the same day, Rev. Thomas James, recently come 
from England, was elected and ordained their pastor. 

On or near the 11th of October, 16^3, a church was 
gathered at Cambridge (then Newtown^, composed chief- 
ly of Rev. Thomas Hooker's flock in England, who had 
preceded him in their flight to these shores. Imme- 
diately after his arrival, they took measures to secure his 
resettlement as their pastor, with Rev. Samuel Stone 
for teacher. 

The church in Ipswich was gathered in May, 1634, — 
possibly at an earlier date, for we learn from Winthrop, 
that his pastor, Mr. Wilson, went there to preach on 
the 26th of the preceding November, because they had 
no minister ; and that subsequently, for the same reason, 
he (the governor) went there to "prophesy." The 
labors of their first minister, Rev. Thomas Parker, com- 
menced in May, and of their first ordained teacher, 
Rev. Nathaniel Ward, in June, 1634. 

The same year (1634) on the 27th of September, a 



16 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

majority of that celebrated church, gathered by Rev. 
Henry Jacob, at Southwark, London, in 1616, emigrated 
to these shores (about thirty in all), under the lead of 
Rev. John Lothrop, their pastor, and located in " the 
wilderness, called Scituate," where thirteen of the 
former members, who had joined the Plymouth church, 
reunited with them soon after their arrival. 

The First church in Newbury was gathered in 1635, 
and Rev. Thomas Parker (released from the Ipswich 
church), and Rev. James Noyes, were invested with the 
offices of pastor and teacher. 

The church in Hingham was gathered in the month 
of September, 1635, from a company of immigrants, 
who commenced a new settlement there on the 18th of 
that month, under the lead of Rev. Peter Hobart, of 
Hingham, in Norfolk, England ; and he was ordained 
as their pastor the same day. 

The same year (1635), about twenty families located 
in Weymouth, from which the First church in that town 
was constituted, and Rev. Joseph Hull settled over 
them. 

The Cambridge church having decided to emigrate 
in a body to Connecticut, with their ministers, Hooker 
and Stone (which they did in the summer of 1636, and 
became the founders, and First church in Hartford), 
another company of newly arrived pilgrims stood ready 
to take their places, and were embodied on the 1st day 
of the preceding February, with Rev. Thomas Shepard 
for their minister. The same is now the " Shepard 
church " of that city. 

The church in Concord was gathered at Cambridge, 
July 5th, 1636, and had Rev. Peter Bulkley for their 
pastor, who, with twelve other families, recently come 
from England, removed soon after to this ancient home 
of the Indians, and were the first white settlers there. 

A large portion of the Dorchester church having 
removed in a body to Connecticut, and planted the 
town and church of Windsor, the residuum, joined by 
other new-comers, were organized August 23, 1636, into 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 17 

the present First church of Dorchester, and Rev. Richard 
Mather was ordained over them the same day.* 

The First church in Springfield was probably consti- 
tuted in 1637, as the labors of their first minister, Rev. 
George Moxon, are known to have commenced then, in 
pursuance of a compact entered into by the first set- 
tlers, May 14th of the preceding year, an article of 
which was : " We intend, by God's grace, as soon as 
we can, with all convenient speed to procure some 
godly and faithful minister, with whom we propose to 
join in church covenant, to walk in all the ways of 
Christ." The founders of this new enterprise in the 
wilderness were among the most influential members 
of the Roxbury church. 

The First church in Taunton is supposed to have been 
constituted the same year, with Rev. William Hooke 
for their minister. The original settlers were chiefly 
emigrants from Taunton, in England, led on by the 
dauntless Elizabeth Pool, a Puritan lady of rare enter- 
prise, whom Winthrop calls " a gentlewoman, an an- 
cient maid." 

The church in Sandwich was gathered in 1638, from 
a number of families that came there the preceding 
year from Lynn, and had Rev. William Leveridge for 
their minister. 

The church in Salisbury was gathered also in 1638, 
from among pious families that were settling the place, 
with Rev. William Worcester for their first minister, 
who came from Salisbury, in England. 



* An organization was attempted in March preceding ; but Mr. 
Shepard of Cambridge, who was on the council, took exception at 
the Christian experiences narrated by several of the candidates. 
Consequently Mr. Mather and his people were advised " by the gen- 
eral vote of all the churches" to postpone the act of confederation, — 
which was consummated, to the satisfaction of all parties, at the date 
above named. The original correspondence that ensued on the sub- 
ject between Mr. Shepard and " his loving friend and brother, Mr. 
Mader," is in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and 
will richly repay a perusal. A copy may be found also in Shepard's 
Autobiography, by Rev. N. Adams, D. D. 

2 



18 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

The church in Dedham was organized November 8, 

1638, from a company of emigrants, consisting of 
"about thirty families, come together from several 
,parts of England, few of them known to one another 
before," and Rev. John Allin was ordained on the 14th 
of the next April. 

The church in Quincy was gathered September 17, 

1639, with Rev. "William Thompson for their first 
pastor. 

Probably the church in Yarmouth was organized also 
in 1639, as the labors of their first minister, Rev. Mar- 
maduke Mathews, are known to have commenced 
then. 

On the 11th of October, the same year, the majority of 
the church which emigrated from London to America in 
1634, and located at iScituate, made one more move, and 
settled in Barnstable, where it is now the West church 
in that town. The residue immediately reorganized, and 
called Rev. Charles Chauncy to become their pastor. 
This, therefore, must be regarded as the date of the 
present First church in Scituate ; as also the beginning 
of church ordinances in Barnstable. 

The church in Rowley was formed December 3, 1639. 
The company who settled that town came from Eng- 
land the year before, under the lead of Rev. Ezekiel 
Rogers, whom they chose for their first pastor, and gave 
to their new settlement the name of the town where he 
was minister before coming to America. 

In August, 1640, the church in Sudbury was gathered, 
and Rev. Edmund Browne was ordained the same day. 

Thus at the end of the second decade of years, 
twenty-nine churches had been planted, two of which 
had removed in a body to Connecticut. Of the twenty- 
seven remaining on the ground, nineteen were located 
in the Massachusetts patent, and eight in that of 
Plymouth. 

But the founding of so many churches of Christ — 
always, and everywhere important — hardly suggests 
the importance which attaches to the founding of these. 
One must study the character of their founders, the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 19 

great principles of church polity which they established, 
and the seeds of other things which were sown in con- 
nection with this church -planting, in order to under- 
stand the momentous bearings of the transaction. 
When it is considered that nearly all the members of 
these churches, and their ministers (to use a royal but 
coarse expression), had been " harried out of the king- 
dom " on account of their Puritanism, and come to 
these shores for conscience' sake, it can be believed that 
they were more thoroughly winnowed from worldliness 
than any others then on earth. When we remember 
that it was not as schismatics in their mother church, 
nor as seceders from its communion, but simply as 
reformers of its worship " according to the primitive 
pattern," that they found themselves gradually growing 
into Congregational churches, we may be sure that the 
Congregationalism which they were here developing, 
was free from every thing sectarian, or even denomina- 
tional in its spirit, and assumed the shape it did, merely 
because, in their application of Scripture principles, it 
would assume no other. And when it is borne in mind 
that nearly all the first ministers and magistrates were 
not only men of pure hearts, but of gifted minds, hav- 
ing been trained in English universities, it cannot be 
doubted that they were qualified for the work to which 
they were called, of laying foundation-stones in church 
or state. The wilderness never saw such a sight be- 
fore, — so many and such eminent civilians and divines 
flocking to the wildest of her howling wastes, — the 
highest style of mental and moral culture finding a 
home amid the ancient haunts of barbarism. Such 
magistrates as Carver and Bradford and Winthrop 
and Dudley ; such ministers as Higginson and Cotton 
and Norton and Ward and Shepard and Eliot and 
Hooker and Mather, with most of their associates who 
took part in shaping the course of our civil and eccle- 
siastical affairs during this formative period, would have 
matched the best English minds of that age in their 
respective walks of life, had they been allowed to exer- 
cise their functions at home. And we may be sure 



20 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

that the enormous tax levied upon their mental powers 
in originating the plans and proceedings demanded by 
this new and difficult position did not permit those 
powers to rust. It is an unparalleled fact, that at the 
end of twenty years from the arrival of the Mayflower, 
and when the entire immigration to this State could 
not have exceeded twenty thousand souls, sixty-three 
non-conforming ministers had landed on her soil ; four 
of whom had died, and six removed to other planta- 
tions, leaving fifty-three still here. And not less than 
fifty of these were liberally educated, and experienced 
preachers when they left England. We may go even 
further, and say that they were eminently popular 
preachers. So strong was their hold on the popular 
mind, that their devoted hearers followed them to these 
ends of the earth ; and forgot the sorrows of an exile 
life while listening, by the hour, in a cold meeting- 
house, without furnace or stove, to the gracious words 
that proceeded out of their mouths. There w 7 ere those 
who would walk twenty miles to attend a Thursday 
lecture in Boston, and feel well paid for their toil by 
hearing Norton preach, or Shepard pray. 

It is certainly worth our while to observe the foot- 
marks which such men left on the world while passing 
through it. And if, at this point (1640), we look around 
to notice some of the leading characteristics which, 
under such influences, were given to the twenty-seven 
churches already located within the limits of Massa- 
chusetts, and to see what spirit animated the age, we 
discover, first of all, a marked approximation towards 
uniformity in the general aspect of these churches, and 
a growing tendency to affiliation ; while at the same 
time there was a vigilant guard at every turn, against 
the surrender of their individual rights and proper inde- 
pendence. The custom had become prevalent, but not 
universal, of asking the advice and assistance of " neigh- 
bor churches," when a new church was to be formed, 
till, in 1636, the general court ordered "all persons 
to take notice, that this court doth not, nor will here- 
after, approve of any such companies of men as shall 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 21 

hereafter join in any pretended way of church-fellow- 
ship, without they shall first acquaint the magistrates 
and the elders of the greater part of the churches in 
this jurisdiction, with their intentions, and have their 
approbation herein." (Rec. Mass. Colony, Vol. I. 168). 
The law was aimed at certain excesses of independ- 
ence which were beginning to appear (is it strange that 
they should ?) among a people bursting suddenly from 
bondage into boundless freedom. Nevertheless, among 
the well disposed, there were some who, mistaking the 
end and scope of this order, thought they saw in it the 
" seeds of usurpation on the liberties of the Gospel." 
As an illustration, the settlers of Dedham lately arrived, 
and, about to form into a church state, sent a deputa- 
tion to Governor Winthrop for more light on the subject 
before they could ask leave of magistrates or ministers 
in a case like that. The governor explained that the 
" court or law did no way intend to abridge such a 
liberty of gathering into church-fellowship privately, as 
if it were unlawful, or as if such a church were not a 
true church, rightly gathered ; but the scope was this, 
that if any people of unsound judgment or erroneous 
way, etc., should privately set up a church amongst 
them, the commonwealth could not so approve them 
as to communicate that freedom and other privileges 
unto them which they did unto others, or protect them 
in their government, if they saw their way dangerous 
to the public peace." (Dedham church, Rec. in Felt's 
Eccl. Hist. Vol. I. p. 369.) This explanation satisfied 
the Dedham folks, and should satisfy all else who can 
excuse another law then in force, conferring the right 
of suffrage exclusively on church-members. (Rec. Mass. 
Colony, Vol. I. 87.) If church-members were to be the 
sole depositories of power in the commonwealth, it 
certainly behooved the commonwealth to consider what 
sort of people should be gathered into churches. The 
passage of this latter order was rendered necessary by 
passing the former ; and that former, which enacted 
that the body politic should embrace only members of 
churches, finds an ample apology in the fact, that the 



22 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

maintenance of a pure Christianity, as developed 
through reformed churches, was the one great object 
of our fathers in attempting to found any body politic 
at all. Not to admit into that body at first, those who 
stood in antagonism to it, was simply not to abandon 
that object in the outset, nor to make provision for its 
defeat afterwards. The intent of the law is thus stated 
in the preamble : " To the end, the body of the com- 
mons may be preserved of honest and good men." 
Those who ridicule this legislation as aiming at a union 
of church and state among men, who had just fled 
their country to escape the intolerable evils of such a 
union, make themselves ridiculous. It was the church 
founding a state. This is what was actually done; 
and this was their way of doing it. If, like an over- 
fond mother, the church impaired her own strength by 
holding the infant state in her arms too long, or by 
extending this tutelage too far (as was undoubtedly 
the fact), that is quite another thing, which will be 
looked at when we come to it. But up to this time it 
was an artless and intelligent proceeding, based on a 
well-considered principle. That principle, as announced 
by Rev. John Cotton, whose opinion on all questions 
relating to civil or ecclesiastical government in New 
England was more potential than that of any other 
man in his day, is briefly stated thus : " It is better that 
the commonwealth be fashioned to the setting forth of 
God's house, which is his church, than to accommodate 
the church to the civil state." Whether this be a safe 
principle in its practical issues, let the work of their 
hands bear witness. The world knows something 
about the commonwealth which was thus founded, 
and can form their own opinion.* 



* Since the above was written, the North American Keview for 
April, 1857, in an article on "Oliver's Puritan Commonwealth " 
(pp. 453 and 457), has given the following strong testimony on the 
same point. " In Winthrop's Reply to Vane's Answer to his Defence 
of an order of Court, 1637, forbidding habitation without allowance 
of the magistrates, occurs a most remarkable sentence, giving us a 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 23 

Not only in the gathering of churches, but in the 
ordination of ministers also, there was an approxima- 
tion towards uniformity. The calling together of pas- 
tors and delegates from other churches was fast growing 
into a custom ; though the inherent right of each 
church to ordain their own officers was constantly 
affirmed. In answer to a question propounded to the 
ministers of New England by their Puritan brethren 
across the water in 1636, " Whether do you hold it 
lawful for mere lay or private men to ordain ministers 
in any case ? " they replied, in substance, if churches 
have the right to elect, much more have they the right 
to ordain, — the less being involved in the greater ; in 
the exercise of this right, however, the church should 
ordinarily act through their officers, if they have any. 
"But when a church hath no officers, but the first 
officers themselves are to be ordained, then this ordina- 
tion by the rite of imposing hands may be performed 
for the church by the most prime, grave, and able men 
from among themselves, as the church shall depute 
hereunto." (Felt's Eccl. Hist. Vol. I. 385.) The call- 
ing in of councils to perform the ordination services 
was understood to be, in theory, nothing more nor less 
than tire church itself performing them by proxy, on the 
principle, qui facit per alium facit per se. In their 
reasonings on the subject, to leave the ultimate decision 
of the question to other churches, whether a company 
of believers should be a church and have a pastor, 
would be to adopt the Presbyterian rule, which they 



key to the singular ecclesiastical policy of the Puritans. The sen- 
tence would appear to have been incidentally written, but it is of 
emphatic importance. * Whereas the way of God hath always been to 
gather churches out of the world, now the world, or civil state, must be 
raised out of the churches. 9 This explains every thing to us in the 
religious institutions of our ancestors. The English Magna Charta 
restricted the right of suffrage in the choice of their own representa- 
tives in the commons to freeholders. Puritanism restricted the right 
of suffrage to Christians. It tried to evolve a state out of a church. 
There have been many more fanciful, many less inspiring aims than 
this proposed in the great schemes of men." 



24 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

had no thought of adopting ; to leave it to the good 
pleasure of neighboring ministers, would be to resume 
the yoke of prelacy, which they had just thrown off. 
Every step taken towards uniformity and affiliation, 
during this period, was taken with the utmost caution, 
and not till it was clearly seen that the fundamental 
principle of their ecclesiastical organism — indepen- 
dency, or self-government — was not endangered thereby. 
So that these' seeming restraints, which the usages of 
the times were throwing upon their liberty, they re- 
garded as merely the bonds of fellowship, which did 
not trammel their freedom. 

One thing which, in the end, greatly strengthened 
these bonds of fellowship and affection, threatened for 
a while their utter disruption. It was the Antinomian 
Controversy. As this affair belongs to the period now 
under review, it may here be remarked, in brief, that 
the Antinomian, or Familistic, or Perfectionist doctrines 
— for they have been known by all these different 
names — appear to have been brought to these shores 
by Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, who came from England and 
joined the Boston church in 1634, where her husband, 
Mr. William Hutchinson, was afterwards elected dea- 
con. Governor Winthrop, who took a lively interest in 
suppressing the heresy, says : " She brought over with 
her two dangerous errors ; that the person of the Holy 
Ghost dwells in a justified one ; that no sanctification 
can help to evidence to us our justification. From these 
two," he continues, " grew many branches, — as our 
union with the Holy Ghost, so as a Christian remains 
dead to every spiritual action, and hath no gifts nor 
graces, other than such as are hypocrites', nor any other 
sanctification but the Holy Ghost himself." (Winth. 
Jour. Vol. I. 239.) So prolific, however, did this error 
prove, that when a general synod convened at Cam- 
bridge, in the summer of 1637, to take the matter in 
hand, its branches had grown to eighty-two. A list of 
eighty-two "erroneous opinions" were charged upon 
Mrs. Hutchinson and her followers, with an addenda of 
nine " unsafe speeches." 



IK MASSACHUSETTS. 25 

Mrs. Hutchinson at first propagated her views chiefly 
through weekly female meetings, held at her own house. 
But her brother-in-law, Rev. John Wheelwright, who 
arrived in Boston in 1636, was soon found ready to 
preach in public what she was teaching in private. It 
was not long before a majority of the Boston church, 
with one of their ministers, the renowned John Cotton, 
were lending their countenance to the newly-broached 
views, — a sufficient proof that this woman possessed, 
at that time, some rare excellences of character. Legal- 
ists and Antinomians were the terms which the two 
contending parties hurled at each other, like bombs in- 
terchanged by hostile batteries. It is sad to think of 
Wilson and Cotton, in the highest ranks of the minis- 
try, and of Winthrop and Vane, among the chief magis- 
trates, assailing each other with such missiles. Yet so 
it was till the synod of 1637, comprising " all the teach- 
ing elders throughout the country, and some newly 
come out of England, not yet called to any place here," 
after learned discussions which lasted twenty-four days, 
pronounced their judgment against the new views. 
Hitherto, when questions of doctrine or duty had di- 
vided the members of a church, a discussion, more or 
less private, had generally bridged the chasm, and 
brought the parties together; for in those days, and 
among that people (incredible as the fact may seem in 
our times), argument produced conviction, and convic- 
tion ended strife. But in this case all the usual appli- 
ances seemed to fail. Nevertheless, in the end, even 
this deep Antinomian slough was crossed in the same 
way. Arguments, solid scripture arguments, were the 
stepping-stones on which the bemired errorists mostly 
were led over, though modern prejudice has invented 
for their use a Puritan inquisition. " Thus saith the 
Lord," was the only authority employed ; and it was 
found sufficient. One who appears to have been an eye- 
witness, says, as quoted by Hutchinson, the historian, 
" they who came together with minds exasperated, by 
this means depart in peace." And in " New England's 
First-Fruits," written a few years after, it is remarked, 



26 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

"the matter came to such a happie conclusion that 
most of the seduced came humbly and confessed their 
errours in our publique assemblies, and abide to this 
day constant in the truth. And from that time not any 
unsound, unsavourie and giddie fancie have dared to lift 
up his head, or abide the light amongst us." (Hist. 
Coll. Vol. I. 247.) It is true that Mrs. Hutchinson and 
her brother-in-law, with several other leading Antino- 
mians, for contumacious and insurrectionary proceed- 
ings, exposed themselves to civil penalties.* Some of 
them were even imprisoned, and finally expelled from 
the jurisdiction, — all which matters are fully set 
forth in a rare old book, entitled " The Rise, Reign, and 
Ruin of Antinomians," ascribed by some to Rev. Thomas 
Weld, by others to Governor Winthrop. The fact, 
however, is, that Winthrop wrote the book, and Weld 
the preface. 

Whatever there was of severity in the treatment 
which these parties received as disturbers of the peace 



* The assertion that these "civil penalties" were visited upon 
them for their heretical opinions has often been asserted, but always 
in face of the clearest and most authentic testimony to the contrary. 
Mr. Cotton, whose uncomfortable position throughout the whole pro- 
ceeding would have inclined him to take that view, if it could be 
truthfully taken, makes the following clear discrimination. " The 
synod [was convoked] to agitate, convince, and condemn the errors 
and the offensive carriages then stirring. Whereat the magistrates 
being present, they saw just cause to proceed against the chief of 
those whom they conceived to have bred any civil disturbance ; and 
the churches saw cause to proceed against their members whom they 
found to be broachers or maintainers of such heresies. For though 
the errors were condemned, yet they were not fastened personally 
upon her [Mrs. Hutchinson], nor had we any two witnesses that 
would affirm it to us that she did broach or maintain such errors or 
heresies till after her sentence of banishment by the general court; 
and then, indeed, as she was more bold and open in declaring her 
judgment, before many witnesses, so the elders of the church of Bos- 
ton called her to account before the church, and convinced her of 
her errors, and, with the consent of the church, laid her and one or 
two more of her abettors under the censure of an admonition even 
for those corrupt opinions which were charged upon her and proved 
against her." — Way of Congregational Churches Cleared, etc. p. 85. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 27 

(and this was the sole ground of their punishment), the 
candid will find a sufficient extenuation in the perils 
with which the churches and the Commonwealth alike 
were then threatened. Archbishop Laud, reversing 
King James's policy towards the Puritans, of " harrying 
them out of the kingdom," was punishing them for 
leaving.* There was unmistakable evidence of his 
settled purpose to execute upon all these fugitive non- 
conformists the threat which he uttered against Daven- 
port, when told that he had escaped to America — " my 
arm shall reach him there." The plan of subjecting all 
New England to the rule of one governor-general, of 
his own appointment, armed with that dreadful engine- 
ry of despotic power, the " Court of High Commission," 
was known to have received the royal sanction ; and 
our fathers were making preparations quietly, but effi- 
ciently, to resist it. Nothing but the civil war which 
broke out at home, and cost both the prelate and his 
monarch their heads, prevented the American Revolu- 
tion from coming into the world's drama then, instead 
of a century later. Under these circumstances the legal 
enactments which disarmed, arrested, imprisoned, or 
banished those who proclaimed their disaffection to the 



* Eight ships lying in the Thames, and bound to New England, 
were stopped by a royal order, May 1, 1637, which Neale says were 
" filled with Puritan families, among whom (if we may believe Dr. 
George Bates and Mr. Dugdale, two famous royalists) were Oliver 
Cromwell, John Hampden, and Arthur Hesselrigge, who, seeing no 
end of the oppressions of their native country, determined to spend 
the remainder of their days in America." Chalmers, in his Political 
Annals, adds three more names, scarcely less renowned, — Sir Mat- 
thew Boynton, Sir William Constable, and John Pym. Had these 
been suffered to depart, the king and his archbishop might have 
saved their heads. " He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." It 
is a singular instance of, — the fickleness of fortune, shall we call it ? 
or of retributive justice ? — that in less than five years from the date 
of Laud's proposal " to send a bishop over to them [in New Eng- 
land] for their better government, with forces to compel, if he were 
not otherwise able to persuade, obedience" (see. Heylyn, p. 369), it 
was moved in the house of commons to send Laud himself there, as 
an exile, to endure their scorn, in lieu of hanging him ! — Hanb. H. 
p. 541. 



28 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

constituted authorities, were the dictates of necessity, 
and no more deserve the name of religious persecution, 
than similar inflictions on the so called tories of 1776. 
In both cases the great law of self-preservation was 
simply obeyed. 

There is one more feature of that age to be noticed 
as an eminently characteristic one. It is that which 
was developed in the founding of Harvard College. At 
first thought it seems strange that such an institution 
should have sprung into being amid the tumultuous 
scenes of a war with the Pequots, an expected war of a 
still more formidable character with Archbishop Laud, 
and an actual controversy among themselves on a theo- 
logical question, whose then uncertain issue excited 
more painful apprehensions in leading minds, than 
both the others together. And yet when we consider 
the object for which the college was founded, we can 
readily see how the impelling motives for such an un- 
dertaking must have been strengthened and quickened 
by the perils that pressed upon them on so many sides. 
All the records, testimonies, and traditions that have 
come to us, confirm the fact that Harvard College was 
originally the embodiment of a strictly religious idea. 
From the foundation to the top stone, it was regarded 
as the grand bulwark of truth and righteousness, which 
they were erecting, — that form of truth, that type of 
righteousness of which the single word, Puritanism, was 
a full and exact definition. In " New England's First- 
Fruits," published about the year 1642, where the mo- 
tives, means, and ends of the founders are laid bare (Mass. 
Hist. Coll. Vol. I. 224), we are told that such a thing 
had been " longed for and looked after," ever since the 
settlement commenced, but without any practical issue, 
till "it pleased God to stir up the heart of one, Mr. 
John Harvard (a godly gentleman and lover of learn- 
ing), to give the one half of his estate (it being in all 
about £ 1,700) towards the erecting of a college, and all 
his library. After him, another gave <£300 ; others after 
them cast in more ; and the public hand of the State 
added the rest." On the 17th of November, 1637, the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 29 

general court fixed the location at Cambridge, — influ- 
enced therein, as Cotton Mather supposes, chiefly by the 
stand which the pastor of that church, Rev. Thomas 
Shepard, had taken against Antinomian errors, and 
"because of his enlightening and powerful ministry." 
Having made it one of the rules of college, that " every 
student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to 
consider well that the main end of his life and studies 
is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, 
and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only 
foundation of all sound knowledge and learning," Har- 
vard University could not have had a more favorable 
location. 

If this view of the origin and early surroundings of 
the institution shows us the faith of its founders, and 
the religious type of their times, a glance at the pre- 
scribed course of studies will illustrate their literary 
tastes and attainments. To gain admission into the 
Freshmen class the applicant was expected to show his 
ability to " read any classical author into English, and 
readily make and speak true Latin, and write it in verse 
as well as in prose." (Math. Mag. Vol. II. 9.) It is easy 
to imagine the consternation that would come over the 
countenance of many an aspiring tyro in our times, to 
be met at the threshold of college life with such a requi- 
sition. And after matriculation, it would not be sur- 
prising if some of our nineteenth century boys — not 
the dullest ones either — should find it difficult to " read 
a chapter out of Hebrew into Greek from the Old Tes- 
tament in the morning, and out of English into Greek 
from the New Testament in the evening," as the under- 
graduates at Harvard were accustomed to do at college 
prayers. These exercises, however, came in by the by, 
in addition to a prescribed course of severe mental 
training, which required twelve hours of hard study, — 
that much of time being then reckoned a student's 

I da y-* 

* In " New England's First-Fruits," referred to above, are printed 
the " Rules and Precepts that are observed in the College," of which 
the following are the first four, namely : 



30 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

" 1. When any scholar is able to understand Tully, or such like 
classical Latin author extempore, and make and speak true Latin in 
verse and prose, suo ut aiunt Marte, and decline perfectly the para- 
digms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then, and not 
before then, be capable of admission into the college. 

" 2. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed 
to consider well the main end of his life and studies is, to know God 
and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3); and therefore 
to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all such knowl- 
edge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let 
every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him. 
(Prov. 2 : 3.) 

" 3. Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures 
twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his 
proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of the language 
and 'logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his tutor shall re- 
quire, according to his ability ; seeing the entrance of the word giv- 
eth light, it giveth understanding to the simple. (Ps. 119 : 130.) 

" 4. That they, eschewing all profanation of God's name, attributes, 
word, ordinances, and times of worship, do study with good con- 
science carefully to retain God and the love of his truth in their 
minds, else let them know, that (notwithstanding their learning) God 
may give them up to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate 
mind. (2 Thes. 2:11,12; Rom. 1 : 28.)" 

The remaining " Rules and Precepts," four in number, enjoin dil- 
igence in study, avoidance of bad company, punctual attendance on 
college exercises, and prescribe penalties for disobedience. Follow- 
ing this is the four years' course of study, and a brief account of the 
first commencement ; — all which is a sufficient warrant, no doubt, 
to the " friends in London who desire to be satisfied on these points," 
that the infant college will prove a perennial fountain of sound learn- 
ing and sound orthodoxy. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

1640-1650. 

Fifteen churches added. — Lay ordination discontinued. — New England habits 
become settled. — Character of the ministry. — Catechizing the children. — 
Salaries of ministers, how raised. — Cambridge Platform constructed. — 
Presbyterian tendencies derived from the Westminster Assembly. — Funda- 
mental principle of Congregationalism asserted. 

Between the years 1640 and 1650, notwithstanding 
the ebb-tide of immigration occasioned by the rising 
fortunes of Puritanism in the father-land, fifteen new 
churches were added to the twenty-seven already gath- 
ered within the bounds of this State. They arose in 
the following order, and on this wise. 

When Governor Mayhew removed from Watertown 
to Martha's Vineyard in 1641, he found the remnants 
of a few families, supposed to have landed at Pease's 
point from an English vessel bound to Virginia (2 M. 
H. Coll. Vol. III. 81), who, with others of his own com- 
pany, were soon after embodied in a church at Edgar- 
town, and the governor's only son, Rev. Thomas May- 
hew, Jr., became their pastor. 

The church in Woburn was gathered August 14, 
1642, and Rev. Thomas Carter, from Watertown, was 
ordained on the 22d of the following November. 
Captain Edward Johnson, one of the fathers of the 
church and town, in his " Wonder Working Provi- 
dence" (chap, xxii.), has given us a circumstantial ac- 
count of the proceedings in this case, which, as it illus- 
trates the ecclesiastical usages of the times, deserves a 
passing notice here. Messengers from all the surround- 
ing churches, and one of the magistrates, with a large 
congregation of others from far and near, " assembled 
together in the morning about eight o'clock. After the 



32 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Rev. Mr. Symmes (pastor at Charlestown, from which 
the new church colonized) had continued in preaching 
and prayer about the space of four or five hours, the 
persons that were to join in covenant, openly before the 
congregation stood forth and confessed what the Lord 
had done for their poor souls, by the work of his Spirit 
in the preaching of his word and providences one by 
one," — the ministers and messengers questioning them 
on any doubtful point to their full satisfaction, and then 
" holding out the right hand of fellowship in the name 
of the churches to which they belonged." The ordina- 
tion service, which took place some three months later, 
"in presence of the like assembly," was conducted 
thus. After the pastor elect " had exercised in preach- 
ing and prayer the greater part of the day, two persons 
in the name of the church laid their hands upon his 
head, and said, We ordain thee, Thomas Carter, to be 
pastor unto this church of Christ. Then one of the 
elders, being desired of the church, continued in prayer," 
which, in this instance, seems to have comprehended 
the charge and right hand of fellowship also. As this 
is one of the boldest cases of lay-ordination that our 
history affords, so it proved to be a culminating point 
from which the usage, not in theory, but in practice, 
gradually subsided till lay ordinations went entirely out 
of use. Referring to this Woburn ordination, Hubbard 
says (chap, xlviii.) : " There was some little difference 
about the manner of it ; for in regard they had no other 
officer in their church besides, nor any of their members 
that thought themselves fit to solemnize such an ordi- 
nance, they were advised by some to desire the elders of 
other churches to perform it, by imposing hands on the 
said Mr. Carter ; but others, supposing it might be an 
occasion of introducing the dependency of churches, 
and so of a presbytery, were not so free to admit 
thereof, and therefore it was performed by one of their 
own members, though not so well to the satisfaction of 
some of the magistrates and ministers then present ; 
and since that time it hath been more frequent in such 
cases to desire the elders of neighboring churches, by 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 33 

virtue of communion of churches, to ordain such as 
are by the churches and people to be their officers, 
where there are no elders before." 

In the same year, 1642, Rev. Richard Blinman and 
several Welsh families, who had recently located at 
Marshfield, removed to Gloucester, and uniting with a 
small colony of fishermen already on the ground, were 
formed into a church under his pastoral care. 

A schism that occurred in the Scituate church on 
account of the settlement of Rev. Charles Chauncy, 
whose views of baptism and the Lord's Supper were 
unacceptable to a large minority, resulted in the organi- 
zation of the South Scituate church in 1642, though 
their first pastor, Rev. William Witherell, was not 
ordained till September 2, 1645. 

In 1644, Hull became a town, with "twenty houses 
and a minister," — a more flourishing state than Hull 
has been in for the last hundred years. Mr. Savage 
supposes that the church was gathered in July of the 
same year, and that Rev. Marmaduke Mathews was the 
minister. 

The church in Wenham, an offshoot from the Salem 
church, was constituted on the 8th of October, 1644, 
with Rev. John Fiske for their pastor. An attempted 
organization the year before was relinquished, by advice 
of ministers and magistrates, on the ground that there 
had not been a sufficiently thorough preparation. 

During the same year, 1644, Rev. Samuel Newman * 
removed from Weymouth with about thirty families of 
his former charge, and commenced a settlement, and 
gathered a church in Seekonk — a tract then in dispute 
between the several colonies on which it bordered. 



* Baylies, in his Historical Memoir of Plymouth Colony, referring 
to the early literature and literary men of New England, says of Mr. 
Newman, " He was a man of great learning and an indefatigable 
student. His great work, the Concordance of the Bible (the basis 
of the celebrated Cambridge Concordance, printed in England), was 
completed at Rehoboth — now Seekonk — and so intent was this 
learned and pious man upon this work, that, being destitute of other 
lights, he wrote in the evenings by the light of pine knots." 

o 



34 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

In October, 1645, two churches were gathered, the 
one at Haverhill, the other at Andover (North Parish), 
Rev. John Ward being ordained over the former, and 
Rev. John Woodbridge over the latter. A previous 
attempt at organization had failed, as " most of those 
who were to join together in church fellowship at that 
time refused to make the confession of their faith and 
repentance," on the ground that they had already done 
it in other churches. " Whereupon, the messengers of 
the churches not being satisfied, the assembly broke up 
before they had accomplished what they intended." 
(Hubbard, 416.) On further reflection they changed 
their views, and conformed to the prevailing custom. 

On the 5th of November, 1645, the Reading church 
(now South Reading, but then Lynn Village) was 
organized, and Rev. Henry Greene ordained as their 
first pastor. 

The same year, 1645, should probably be assigned to the 
churches in Topsfield and Manchester as the date of their 
embodiment, though the stated ministry commenced in 
both these places several years previous. The former w T as 
a colony from Ipswich, and had Rev. William Knight for 
their minister. The latter sprang from the Salem 
church, and sustained a kind of branch connection with 
it till the settlement of Rev. Amos Cheever in 1716. 

The church in Eastham colonized from the Plymouth 
church in 1646, having among them " divers of the 
considerablest of the church and town," with Rev. 
John Mayo for their first minister. No pastor was set- 
tled till the ordination of Rev. Samuel Treat, in 1672. 

The nearest conjecture that can be made as to the 
date of the Maiden church is based on the vague but 
characteristic statement, found in Johnson's " Wonder 
Working Providence," that Rev. Marmaduke Mathews 
was settled there " about 1650," and that the church 
was gathered u some distance of time before." Pity 
that this worthy chronicler had not spent a moiety of 
the time in fixing important dates which he threw away 
in making bad verses. 

The Second church in Boston, long known as the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 35 

" Old North," where the Mathers ministered, was gath- 
ered on the 5th of June, 1650, — driven to this measure 
by mere want of room in Mr. Cotton's meeting-house. 
The sermon on that occasion was preached by the 
youthful Samuel Mather, a recent graduate of Harvard 
College, who declined a pressing call to settle with 
them. Rev. John Mayo, of Eastham, was their first 
pastor, though not ordained till several years later. 

We have now reached a point where it is especially 
fitting that we should pause, and try to form a correct 
estimate of the men and things that mark this period 
in our ecclesiastical history. The course of events, 
hitherto so variable, was fast becoming fixed. New 
paths were getting trodden out, in which subsequent 
generations have ever since walked with increasing satis- 
faction. The diversified aspect which this church- 
planting process has presented thus far, henceforth 
assumes a marked sameness. The differing usages in 
these distinct and independent churches had been grad- 
ually assimilating, when the adoption of the Cambridge 
Platform, in 1648, completed the fraternization and 
family likeness. 

All the essential features of New England Congre- 
gationalism, and the religious characteristics of her 
Congregational churches, especially in Massachusetts, 
received a permanent shape during that period, which, 
in every subsequent age, has been looked back upon as 
the primitive pattern, when conscious degeneracy has 
waked up a wish to reform. Let us glance at a few of 
the more prominent objects that present themselves to 
our view from this stand-point. 

In the first place, there appears to have been a win- 
nowing out of the depraved and discordant elements of 
society, which a spirit of wild adventure had brought 
into these communities with the earliest settlers. This 
may be owing, in part, to the roughness of a wilderness 
life, and in part to the strictness of Puritan principles. 
Industry and frugality were the conditions on which 
alone a comfortable existence could be insured in New 
England at that time. Those who would not conform 



36 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

to this condition could not long remain. And even 
were it not so, the quantity and pungency of preaching 
and prophesying rendered any one of these first settled 
towns a most uncomfortable place of residence for loose 
livers or mere worldlings ; while at the same time, the 
magistrate, acting upon the clear conviction that he was 
" the minister of God for the punishment of evil-doers," 
felt no scruple in shutting up, or sending off, such des- 
perate characters as were deemed unsafe to be harbored 
in the community.* At any rate, to whatever cause 
we ascribe it, the moral and religious tone of New 
England was never so high, before or since, as at this 
period. Thomas Lechford, an Episcopal lawyer, who 
was hastening back to England about the year 1642, in 
disgust at the extreme Puritanism of every thing in 
Massachusetts, nevertheless drops this compliment in 
his « Plain Dealing " (3 Mass. Hist. Coll. 386). " Pro- 
fane swearing, drunkenness, and beggars, are but rare 
in the compass of this patent, through the circumspection 
of the magistrates, and the providence of God hitherto." 
A more friendly but less competent witness (Johnson, 
2 id. VII. 40), speaking of the religious habits of the 
people at this time, says, " It is as unnatural for a right 
New England man to live without an able ministry, as 
for a smith to work his iron without a fire." 

As to the ministry itself, it was preeminently worthy 
the esteem of such men. The fifty-five pastors and 
teachers that were supported by these forty-two churches, 
wpre all men of unquestioned piety and evangelical 



* Among the " remarkable passages of Divine Providence," which 
the writers of " New England's First-Fruits " think should engage 
them " still tq wait upon his goodness for the future," they name 
this : "In giving of us such magistrates as are all of them godly 
men and members of our churches, who countenance those that be 
good and punish evil-doers, [so] that a vile person does not lift up 
his head ; nor need a godly man hang it down ; [so] that (to God's 
praise be it spoken) one may live there from year to year, and not 
see a drunkard, hear an oath, or meet a beggar." — Mass. Hist. Coll. 
Vol. I. p. 248. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 37 

doctrine, — many of them profound, original thinkers 
and world-known authors. On looking over the cata- 
logue of bound volumes and pamphlets and public 
documents which they prepared and put forth, — chiefly 
through the London press, — we instinctively ask how 
they ever found time for the performance of their min- 
isterial functions ; but on looking at the prodigious 
amount of preaching and catechizing and pastoral labor 
which they performed, we wonder how and when they 
found leisure to do any thing else. Yet, in addition to 
both these burdens, the civil government was, to a great 
extent, on their shoulders. For the first ten years, no 
important act was passed by the general court of Mas- 
sachusetts, which was not first suggested in a sermon, 
or submitted to the inspection of the elders before its 
passage ; while, in 1641, the " Body of Liberties," 
drawn up at the request of the legislature, by John 
Cotton and Nathaniel Ward (chiefly by the latter), was 
adopted as the code of the Commonwealth, and tran- 
scripts ordered to be made for each town.* 



* Dr. Turnbull, in his History of Connecticut (Vol.1, p. 28), gives 
the following sufficient reasons for the deference paid to the clergy, 
and their influence in civil as well as religious affairs, during these 
early days : " The governors, magistrates, and leading men were 
their spiritual children, and esteemed and venerated them as their 
fathers in Christ. As they had loved and followed them into the wil- 
derness, they zealously supported their influence. The clergy had 
the highest veneration for them, and spared no pains to maintain 
their authority and government. Thus they grew in each other's es- 
teem and brotherly affection, and mutually supported and increased 
each other's influence and usefulness. Many of the clergy who first 
came into the country had good estates, and assisted their poor breth 
ren and parishioners, in their straits, in making new settlements. 
The people were then far more dependent on their ministers than 
they have been since. The proportion of learned men was much less 
then than at the present time. The clergy possessed a very great 
proportion of the literature of the colony. They were the principal 
instructors of the young gentlemen, who were liberally educated be- 
fore they commenced members of college, and they assisted them in 
their studies afterwards. They instructed and furnished others for 
public usefulness, who had not a public education. They had given 
a striking evidence of their integrity and self-denial, in emigrating 



38 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

It would be interesting to lift a loop here and 
there along the fringes of that misty cloud which shuts 
from our view the more private and parochial inter- 
course of such a ministry with such a people, as it was 
developed in their daily walks. But our means of doing 
so are small, and are ever growing less, as the tooth of 
time consumes one relic after another that might serve 
to inform us on these points. Yet we are not left en- 
tirely without data on which to ground a conjecture. 
From historical hints and reminiscences, and especially 
from the recorded penalties inflicted now and then on a 
graceless wight, — for such were among the Puritans, 
though not of them, — who scandalized an " elder," it 
would seem that the faithful pastor moved among his 
flock like Samuel of old among the tribes of Israel, in- 
spiring reverence and love, or exciting fear, according to 
the character or standing of those with whom he had 
converse. His almost universal habit of catechizing 
the young on Saturday afternoons, or at other stated 
seasons, was admirably adapted to pave his way to that 
supremacy which he generally attained in the hearts of 
his people, if he tarried long in a place. His salary, 
though not large, was probably as near the measure of 
his wants as it has ever been since. The whole subject 
of ministerial support was managed with great simplic- 
ity. The deacons were expected to gather up the free 
gifts of the people, and hand them over to the minister, 
if the stated contributions on the Sabbath were insuffi- 
cient. These contributions, which came along weekly 
in some churches, and monthly in others, must have 
been models in their kind. Lechford thus describes the 
custom in the Boston church about the year 1640. Af- 
ter the regular Sabbath worship in the afternoon is over, 



into this rough and distant country, for the sake of religion, and were 
faithful and abundant in their labors. Besides, the people who came 
into the country with them had a high relish for the word and ordi- 
nances. They were exiles and fellow-sufferers in a strange land. 
All these circumstances combined to give them an uncommon influ- 
ence over their hearers of all ranks and characters." 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 39 

and the assembly are about to disperse, " one of the 
deacons, saying, ' Brethren of the congregation, as God 
has prospered you, so freely offer,' the magistrates and 
chief gentlemen first, and then the elders, and all the 
congregation of men, and most of them that were not 
of the church, all single persons, widows, and women, 
in absence of their husbands, come up one after another 
one way, and bring their offerings to the deacon at his 
seat, and put it into a box of wood for the purpose, if it 
be money or papers ; if it be any other chattel, they set 
it down before the deacons, and so pass another way to 
their seats again. I have seen a fair gilt cup, with a 
cover, offered there by one, which is still used at the 
communion." (Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. III. 77, 78.) This 
primitive method of providing for the support of the 
ministry, and other religious purposes, by a voluntary 
contribution, was inculcated by the ministers themselves. 
Winthrop records in his Journal, May 2, 1639, that Mr. 
Cotton, preaching from 2 Kings 8:8, " Take a present 
in thine hand, and go meet the man of God," etc., 
" taught, that when magistrates are forced to provide 
for the maintenance of ministers, then the churches are 
in a declining condition," and " that the ministers' main- 
tenance should be by voluntary contribution, not by 
lands or revenues or tithes ; for these have always 
been accompanied with pride, contention, and sloth." 
(Vol. I. 355.) 

Such were the ministers who had the founding and 
training of these first churches in Massachusetts, and 
under whose guidance they had now taken their places, 
side by side, on one common platform of ecclesiastical 
principles, as a fraternity of Congregational churches. 

A brief notice of the circumstances in which this im- 
portant event was consummated seems due in this 
place. In Mather's Magnalia (B. V. 2 pt. § 1) the pro- 
cess is given thus : " The churches of New England, en- 
joying so much rest and growth as they had now seen for 
some sevens of years, it was upon many accounts neces- 
sary for them to make such a declaration of the church 
order, wherein the good hand of God had moulded 



40 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

them, as might convey and secure the like order unto 
the following generations. Next unto the Bible, which 
was the professed, perpetual, and only directory of these 
churches, they had no platform of church government 
more exact than their famous John Cotton's well-known 
book of 'The Keyes.'" 

This language is intelligible, and the idea beautiful. 
A company of conscientious Christians, — fleeing from 
an oppressive hierarchy because it hinders the develop- 
ment of pure Christianity, making the wilderness their 
home, because it affords them " freedom to worship 
God," selecting their own religious teachers by popular 
vote, and these teachers taking the Bible as their " pro- 
fessed, perpetual, and only directory " in the administra- 
tion of their affairs, — such a company commence their 
career in this secluded spot, free from all other restraint 
than that which Christ, their acknowledged sovereign, 
imposes. In these untrammelled circumstances, each 
body of believers assumes its own independent form ; 
— a form which, owing to a similarity of sentiment and 
condition, will be very likely to have a sameness in its 
essential features, with considerable variety in its minor 
details. At length they come together, not to enact a 
code of ecclesiastical laws, not even to construct an 
original system of church polity ; but simply to compare 
notes and usages, and commit to writing that system 
which had already sprung up into use among them, and 
thus make " a declaration of the church order wherein 
the good hand of God had moulded them." The decla- 
ration thus made was the Cambridge Platform, which 
has ever since been regarded as the ground-plan of New 
England Congregationalism. 

And when it is considered that this system of eccle- 
siastical polity was not concocted by any one man, nor 
body of men, but is simply a transcript of the usages 
which sprang up spontaneously among an intelligent, 
devout, and conscientious fraternity of churches, who 
had as yet no denominational preferences to consult, 
who went to the Scriptures for all their rules, even in 
the minutest affairs of life, it will be seen in what sense 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 41 

it claims to be divinely authorized, and on what grounds 
it rests that claim. Coming up in this way, it gives 
incomparably better evidence of coming from God than 
if it had been devised and decreed by the wisest coun- 
cil of bishops that ever sat in Christendom. 

The first public movement toward this event was as 
early as 1646 ; and the first measure attempted was a 
bill presented to the general court for calling a synod to 
consider the matter. This gave occasion for an unex- 
pected development of the true Congregational spirit. 
The magistrates were willing enough to pass the bill, 
but many of the deputies demurred, — questioning the 
power of the general court to require the churches to 
send their messengers to such a convention. The order 
was modified into a simple motion to the churches, and 
thus passed, not without a jealous concern in the hearts 
of some, however, lest the liberty and proper independ- 
ence of the churches should in some way be damaged. 
It was late in the autumn before all the preliminary 
steps could be taken ; and after a short session of only 
fourteen days, the synod adjourned till the 8th of June, 
1647. This proved to be a season of alarming sickness, 
which occasioned another adjournment till 1648. Mean- 
while Rev. Messrs. Mather of Dorchester, Cotton of Bos- 
ton, and Partridge of Duxbury, were appointed, " each 
of them to draw up a scriptural fi model of church gov- 
ernment,' unto the end that out of these there might be 
one educed which the synod might, after the most filing 
thoughts upon it, send abroad." The result was the 
Cambridge Platform, as we now have it. The modifi- 
cations subsequently made will be considered in their 
proper place.* 

It may be remarked here, however, as an historical 
fact explanatory of some passages in this venerable doc- 



* The synod of 1680, which adopted and sent forth a Confession 
of Faith, unanimously reaffirmed their approval of this platform, "for 
the substance of it." In Mather's Magn. II. B. V., the reader will 
find what particular points were in question, or deemed unessential. 



42 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

ument which seem not quite in harmony with others, 
that there was an extraordinary outside pressure upon 
our New England divines, from the Presbyterian mem- 
bers of the Westminster Assembly in England, just at 
the time they were engaged in this work. As early as 
1643 Winthrop describes "an assembly at Cambridge 
of all the elders in the country," of which Cotton and 
Hooker were moderators ; and Hutchinson informs us 
that it grew out of a movement " to set up Presbyterian 
government under the authority of the Assembly at 
Westminster." (Hutch, in Felt, Vol. I. 490.) Rev. 
Thomas Parker of Newbury, and one or two others, 
had early shown a proclivity in that direction, which 
the undenominational spirit of our fathers had indulged 
without let or hinderance ; but coming up now in the 
form of an open attempt to shift the foundations of 
their polity, the elders took the matter into grave consi- 
deration, and " concluded against some parts of the 
Presbyterian way, and the Newbury ministers took time 
to consider the arguments."* (Winthrop, Vol. II. 165.) 
Letters were sent over from England, and privately cir- 
culated ; pamphlets were published, speeches made, and 
entreaties uttered. The wonder is, that in adjusting the 
platform to the times then passing, the framers had not 
got into it more discrepancies than they have. But so ex- 
plicitly have they defined the matter, form, and power 
of a Congregational church, and guarded its independ- 
ence against internal misrule and external control, that, 
whatever we may find there in seeming disagreement 



* Mr. Parker, in a letter dated Dec. 17, 1643, addressed to "a 
member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster," uses the follow- 
ing language : "I assure you we have a great need of help in the 
way of discipline, and we hope that we shall receive much light from 
you. My cousin Noyse and myself have seen such confusion of ne- 
cessity depending on the government which hath been practised by 
us here, that we have been forced much to search into it." Then fol- 
lows his version of the proceedings in " the convent or meeting at 
Cambridge," not materiallv differing from that of Winthrop. — 
Hanb. Hist. Mem. Vol. II. p. 295. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 43 

with these fundamental principles must be interpreted 
consistently with them, — as was long ago intimated by 
Pres. Stiles in his election sermon, and by John Wise in 
his " Churches' Quarrel Espoused." 

Before the synod of 1648 adjourned, they passed a 
vote accepting "with much gladness of heart and 
thankfulness to God " the Westminster Assembly's 
Confession of Faith ; so that, at the expiration of the 
first thirty years from the landing of our fathers on Ply- 
mouth Rock, the forty-two churches which they had 
planted in Massachusetts were all Orthodox, according 
to the strictest and most approved standard. 



44 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER IV, 

1650-1660. 

Only four churches added during this decade. — Indian missions, an early- 
endeavor. — The Mayhews on Martha's Vineyard, and Eliot on the main. — 
Their great success. — Society for propagating the Gospel formed in Eng- 
land to aid the work. — Home Missions. — Quaker troubles. — Ministerial 
support by law. — Brief biographic notices of the chief Fathers. 

For reasons already intimated, there was a turn in 
the tide of immigration to these shores while the Long 
Parliament and Oliver Cromwell was in power; so 
that only four additional churches were gathered in 
Massachusetts between the years 1650 and 1660. 
These sprang up in the following order. 

The church in Med field was constituted with eight 
members from the Dedham church, in 1651, and Rev. 
John Wilson, Jr., eldest son of the renowned Boston 
minister of that name, was ordained over it the same 
day. 

In 1655, the church which had been gathered in Wen- 
ham eleven years before, removed, with their pastor, 
Rev. John Fiske, to Chelmsford, and thus became the 
founders and first church of that town. 

The church in Beverly was separated from the Salem 
church, March 23, 1657, having sustained a branch rela- 
tion to that prolific vine since 1650. 

About the year 1659, the Hadley church originated in 
a dispute on the terms of communion which arose in 
Connecticut, and, spreading into Massachusetts, found 
an issue, but not an end, in the Half- Way Covenant, so 
called, which, a few years later, got the sanction of a 
synod. As that important subject will come under re- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 45 

view in another chapter, it is needful only to say here, 
that the question about baptizing the children of non- 
communicants was started first at Hartford. On the 
side against the proposed innovation, Rev. John Russell 
of Wethersfield took strong ground ; and, in carrying 
out his views, was complained of to the magistrates for 
irregularity in excommunicating a member of his church. 
This was followed by a reprimand, which was warmly 
resented by a large portion of his church, who were in 
sympathy with him. In this state of things, an ecclesi- 
astical council met to reconcile the differences, but with- 
out success. Mr. Russell, with many of his flock and 
some from Hartford, soon after removed to Hadley, 
under the appellation of " schismatics." As those who 
tarried behind were recognized by the proper authorities 
as the original church, the others took their date from 
the time of secession, though there is no date of their 
reorganization. 

The church in Lancaster was gathered in September, 
1660, and Rev. Joseph Rowlandson, of Indian memory, 
was probably ordained the same day, though his minis- 
try in that place can be traced back to 1654.* 

In addition to these four Congregational churches, 
which sprang into life during this period, there were 
two others of the same faith and order, composed ex- 
clusively of converted Indians — the first-fruits of the 
Gospel among the heathen tribes of this continent. 
And here opens upon us at once a marked feature of 
the age, which challenges our notice. The missionary 
spirit of our Puritan fathers has never been duly ap- 
preciated. From the representations sometimes made, 
one would think that about the only thing they ever 
had to do with the Indians was to kill them off, and 



* Lancaster was incorporated in 1653, fourteen years previous to 
any other town in the country. It was during Philip's war, Febru- 
ary 10, 1675, that 1,500 Indians u invested the town in five distinct 
bodies and places." Mr. Rowlandson was then at Boston soliciting 
soldiers to protect the town. His wife and three children were car- 
ried into captivity. 



46 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

root them out ; and that in doing this abominable work 
they acted under a conviction that they were commis- 
sioned from the Lord, as the children of Israel were to 
drive out the Canaanites. But what are the facts? 
The Leyden Pilgrims, before emigrating to Plymouth, 
recorded among the reasons for their perilous adven- 
ture : " Fifthly and lastly, and which was not the least, 
a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some 
good foundation, or at least, to make some way there- 
unto for the propagating and advancement of the Gos- 
pel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of 
the world, yea, although they should be but as stepping- 
stones unto others for the performance of so great a 
work." (Mort. N. Eng. Mem. 1855, p. 12.) The char- 
ter granted to the Massachusetts Bay Company recog- 
nizes " the gospelizing the natives," as the " principal 
end of this plantation," and "the adventurers' free 
profession." This profession was even engraved on the 
company's seal, in the figure of an Indian with the 
words, Come over and help us, proceeding out of his 
ihouth. If in the first years of their wilderness life 
they did but little in accordance with these high pur- 
poses, we can easily account for it without supposing 
their original views to have changed. Their own hard 
struggle for existence, under the pressure which came 
upon them from all sides, including hostile conspiracies 
formed against them by those very Indians whom they 
were hoping to evangelize, would have entirely balked 
the benevolent aims of ordinary men. Nevertheless, 
individual ministers and laymen were all the while 
scattering seeds of Christian truth on heathen soil, and 
legislative enactments were getting passed, which 
really, though indirectly, prepared that soil for future 
harvests. 

Coeval with his settlement on Martha's Vineyard, 
in 1641, Rev. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. commenced that 
series of missionary labors among the Indians there, 
for which the Mayhew name, through successive gen- 
erations, became so renowned. Simultaneously with 
this movement on the Vineyard, Mr. Richard Bourne, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 47 

a prominent member of the Sandwich church, entered 
upon the same work at Marshpee, on Cape Cod ; and 
his example was soon after followed by Captain 
Thomas Tupper, another layman of the same church, 
— both of whom, in due time, were regularly set apart 
to the missionary service, which they had first taken up 
of their own accord. But the most distinguished of all 
this pioneer band of preachers to the heathen was Rev. 
John Eliot, of Roxbury.* At what time he began to 



* It is a marked peculiarity in the history of these Indian, mis- 
sions, that the missionaries, whether clerical or lay, were self-appointed, 
and, to a great extent, self-supported — discharging all the ordinary 
functions of their respective callings in life like other men, while yet 
performing a prodigious amount of labor for the Indians. A gentle- 
man, born at Southampton, in England, and bred a merchant, is 
found among the early settlers at Watertown, Massachusetts, pursu- 
ing a prosperous business, till some reverse in his mercantile affairs 
reduces him to the necessity of selling his property, " to clear himself 
from debts and engagements." Compelled to begin the world anew 
at the age of forty-three, he removes with his family to an unsettled 
island, overrun with savages, at the head of a small colony, under a 
patent that nominates him their governor. Here, with all his public 
and private cares, he finds leisure to look after the welfare of his 
Indian neighbors ; and when his only son, their spiritual teacher, is 
suddenly removed by death, he rushes in to take his place — actually 
learning their language at the age of threescore years, that he may 
preach to them in it, which he does, with unabated zeal, till death 
discharges him at the age of ninety-three. Such was Governor 
May hew. 

Mr. Richard Bourne and Captain Thomas Tupper were gentle- 
men immigrants, among the first purchasers and settlers of Sand- 
wich, in 1637. Possessed of wealth, energy, and influence, they are 
no sooner located than they begin their labors for the civilization 
and salvation of the natives — the one purchasing a tract of land for 
their exclusive benefit, and the other building them a house of wor- 
ship at his own cost; both, by degrees, turning preachers, — the 
former at Marshpee in Barnstable, to a " congregation of four or 
five hundred," the latter at Monimet, in the west part of Sandwich, 
to " three hundred and forty," — till called away by death in a good 
old age, they leave their missionary work to be carried forward by 
their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. 

John Eliot was sole pastor of the Roxbury church (Mr. Weld, his 
former associate, having returned to England) when, at the age of 
forty-two, he entered upon his missionary labors at the two stations 



48 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

study their language and modes of thought, with refer- 
ence to his own personal labors among them, is not 
known. But the 28th of October, 1646, was the day, 
and a large Indian wigwam on Nonantum hill was the 
place, where he preached his first sermon in their tongue. 
The very next week, at the request of Eliot, an order 
was passed in the general court, authorizing a com- 
mittee, of which he was a member, " to purchase such 
parcels of lands, which they shall conceive meet, for 
the encouragement of the Indians to live in an orderly 
way amongst us." (Mass. Col. Rec. Vol. II. 166.) 
The result was the repurchase of several adjacent 
estates, which the Indians had sold to white settlers 
(including a large part of Nonantum hill), and a gra- 
tuitous grant of it for their " encouragement." The 
subsequent exchange of Nonantum for Natick, and the 
grant of other reservations in various places, for a sim- 
ilar end ; the labors of Eliot and his coadjutors, far and 
near, to Christianize the aborigines of this state and 
the neighboring islands ; together with their surprising 
success, cannot be detailed in this brief sketch. The 
two Indian churches, to which allusion has been made, 
were embodied with much solemnity, after long proba- 
tion, the first in 1659, on Martha's Vineyard ; the second 



of Nonantum hill in Newton and Neponset river in Dorchester, where 
he preached weekly in the Indian tongue, released only from his 
stated Wednesday lecture at home, which Cotton, in his reply to 
Baylie, tells us (p. 77) "the ministers of neighbor churches take off 
by turns." 

Messrs. Leveridge and Cotton of Sandwich, Treat of Eastham, 
and several of the Mayhews on Martha's Vineyard, were fulfilling all 
the duties of settled pastors over their own churches while laboring 
like apostles among the surrounding nations. In a letter of Mr. 
Treat to Increase Mather (Mag. B. VI. § 3) we learn that in 
1693, he had within .the limits of his ample parish — the whole of 
Old Eastham — five hundred Indians, to whom he preached in four 
different places, addressing one of the congregations each week in 
rotation ; and that he had four native assistants, who repaired to his 
house once a week, "to be further instructed {pro modulo meo) in 
the concernments proper for their service ; " thus preaching by proxy 
where he could not in person. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 49 

in 1660, at Natick.* Beside these regularly constituted 
churches, there were also, at the close of the period now 
under review, some fifteen or twenty congregations of 
" Praying Indians," — as all the native population were 
then called, who renounced heathenism, and attended 
Christian worship, — from which other churches were 
subsequently gathered; as will be noticed hereafter. 

From these few facts it is certain that Governor 
Hutchinson writes without his usual candor, or else is 
singularly careless, when he speaks of our fathers as 
waiting " six and twenty years," before looking after 
the spiritual welfare of the Indians ; and thinks " the 
long neglect of any attempts this way. cannot be ex- 
cused." (Hutch. Hist. Vol. I. 150.) In place of this 
censure, he might have said more truthfully, that these 
were the first attempts ever made in Protestant Chris- 
tendom to evangelize the heathen. It was these mis- 
sions, thus started, and crowned with such success, that 
called into being the oldest missionary board in Great 
Britain — the " Society for Propagating the Gospel 
among the Indians in North America." Eliot's account 
of the early converts, which w T as published in London, 
under the title of " The Day-breaking, if not the Sun- 
rising, of the Gospel, with the Indians of New Eng- 
land," together with the personal influence of Governor 
Winslow, who was there at the time on public business, 



* The intelligent perception which these native converts acquired 
of religious truth under such training is well illustrated in " a short 
but true story," which Gookin relates, " of certain Quakers, who, 
landing upon Martha's Vineyard, went to some of the Indian wig- 
wams ; and discoursing with the Indians that understood English, 
persuaded and urged the Indians to hearken to them ; and told the 
Indians that they had a light within them, that was sufficient to guide 
them to happiness," etc. " The Indians heard all this discourse 
patiently ; and then one of the principal of them gravely answered 
the Quakers after this manner: ' You tell us of a light within us, that 
will guide us to salvation ; but our experience tells us that we are 
darkness and corruption and all manner of evil within our hearts. 
We cannot receive your counsel contrary to our experience. There- 
fore we pray you trouble us no further with your new doctrines/ " — 
Hist. Coll. of 'the Ind. Ch. IX. § 2. 

4 



50 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

awakened so much interest, that unsolicited donations 
were put into his hands in aid of the object. In these 
favoring circumstances, he had the wisdom to suggest 
a thought which, on the 27th of July, 1649, was shaped 
into an act of parliament, incorporating sixteen " per- 
sons of known piety and integrity," of whom Mr. 
Winslow was one, to "receive and improve the free 
contributions which might be made for the furthering 
of so good a work." It was also " enacted, that a gen- 
eral collection be made for the purposes aforesaid, 
through all England and Wales ; and that the ministers 
read this act, and exhort the people to a cheerful contri- 
bution." 

It was under the patronage of this venerable Society, 
whose charter was renewed when Charles II. came to 
the throne, in 1660, that Eliot's Indian Bible, and many 
other books for the use of Indian missions, were pub- 
lished, and missionary laborers sustained. The com- 
missioners of the United Colonies, so long as that 
confederacy lasted, were employed as its disbursing 
agents and correspondents. When that arrangement 
came to an end, in 1686, " commissioners were specially 
appointed by the corporation, consisting of the principal 
gentlemen of the civil order, and of the clergy in 
New England," with power to fill their own vacancies. 
" Perhaps no fund of this nature has ever been more 
faithfully applied for the purposes for which it was 
raised." (Hutch. Vol. I. 155.) 

Chronologically connected with these incipient efforts 
to evangelize the heathen, there was also a beautiful 
development of what, in our day, would be called 
" Home Missions," in the ready response given to an 
appeal, which came, as Winthrop words it (Jour. Vol. 
II. 77), "from many well-disposed people of the upper 
new farms of Virginia to the elders here, bewailing 
their sad condition for want of the means of salvation, 
and earnestly entreating a supply of faithful ministers, 
whom, upon experience of their gifts and godliness, 
they might call to office." The letter was read in Bos- 
ton on " lecture day." All the neighboring ministers, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 51 

with more or less of their people, and the magistrates, 
were called together for prayer and fasting and consul- 
tation on so grave a subject The result was, that Rev. 
Messrs. Knowles of Watertown, Thompson of Brain- 
tree, and James of New Haven (formerly of Charles- 
town), were " spared," as their churches had duplicate 
ministers, and were sent forth to the service, just as our 
western missionaries now go into Kansas or California ; 
except that, instead of a commission from the Ameri- 
can Home Missionary Society, it was ordered in gen- 
eral court, " that the governor should commend them to 
the governor and council of Virginia; which was done 
accordingly." 

This occurred in 1642, and it raised high hopes of 
witnessing " the advancement of the kingdom of Christ 
in those parts ; " which was their avowed and only 
motive for the undertaking. " But it fared with them," 
says Hubbard, who gives a much fuller account of this 
affair than Winthrop (pp. 410-12, 522-4), u as it had 
done before with the apostles, that the people magnified 
them, though the civil rulers of the country did not 
allow of their public preaching, because they did not 
conform to the orders of the Church of England; 
however, the people resorted to them in private houses 
as much as before." At length an order was passed, 
" that all such as would not conform to the discipline of 
the English church, should depart the country by such 
a day ; " and these ministers came back in 1644, fol- 
lowed by a portion of their flocks, among whom was 
Daniel Gookin, who subsequently performed such im- 
portant services for Massachusetts, in the capacity of a 
magistrate, major-general, and agent for Indian affairs. 

This quiet, unresisting compliance with the mandates 
of constitutional authority was in perfect consistency 
with the principles of the Puritans. They could not 
surrender their religion, at the dictation even of law ; 
but when forbidden to hold it forth in one place, they 
could " flee to another." * Had their constitutional 



* This scriptural maxim, which had become a principle with every 
New England Puritan, may be offered as a plea in mitigation of 



52 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

authority been respected in like manner, the historian 
would not have to record some events pertaining to this 
period, which will ever awaken the reader's sorrow ; 
namely, the conflicts which our fathers had with the 
Quakers and Baptists. As the controversy with these 
last named did not come to an open issue till a later 
period, their case will be considered in another paper. 

The Quakers made their first appearance on these 
shores in the persons of Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, 
during the month of July, 1656, only four years after 
the sect arose in England ; and in a few weeks they 
were followed by nine others. Anticipating their advent, 
the general court had passed an order two years before, 
imposing a fine of ten pounds on any person having in 
his possession the books of " John Reeves and Lodo- 
wick Muggleton, who pretend themselves to be the two 
last witnesses and prophets of Jesus Christ," — which 
books are declared in the order to be " full of blasphe- 
mies." (Mass. Col. Rec. Vol. IV. 199.) The arrival 
of eleven Quakers, and any quantity of books and 
street preaching, and fierce denunciations of ministers 
and magistrates, law and Gospel, soon made business 
enough for the courts. On the 8th of September, they 
and their books were brought to trial. The Quakers 
were imprisoned for their insolent behavior, which 
they still kept up through the grated windows of their 
cell whenever they could set eyes oft the governor, or 
any of the magistrates and ministers as they passed in 
the streets. Their books were reserved for the flames. 
After many fruitless efforts to bring them to a more 
sober state of mind and manners, which only developed 
more bitterness and blasphemy, they were sentenced to 
banishment, and the master of the ship who brought 
them was put under bonds of five hundred pounds " to 
carry them all away." 

sentence against their severe treatment of intruders. As they 
themselves would have regarded it no better than suicide, to expose 
their lives, even for their religion, when both could be preserved by 
simply following the Saviour's direction, it was charitable in them to 
suppose that others would act upon the same principle, if pressed to 
the point. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 53 

Thus far in this unpleasant business, no candid per- 
son, possessed of the real facts, will be disposed to cen- 
sure the civil authorities, unless they are to be censured 
for not giving up all rule, and abandoning the entire 
object for which they had been most arduously and 
successfully toiling for thirty years. But when, under 
new provocations, severer laws were enacted, reaching 
the point, at length, in 1658, of affixing the death 
penalty for returning after banishment, no one, at the 
present day, can sanction the procedure; though the 
offences for which some of them were banished have 
ever been treated as capital. Four persons, namely, 
William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, Mary Dyer, 
and William Leddra, suffered death ; not, however, for 
their religious opinions (as some will have it), but " for 
their rebellion, sedition, and presumptuous obtruding 
themselves after banishment upon pain of death." 
Great opposition was made to the passage of this law 
in the general court, especially by the deputies ; and it 
was finally carried by a majority of only one vote. 
Great odium has been heaped upon its framers and 
executors. JBut there were extenuating circumstances. 
Hutchinson observes, in palliation of these proceedings, 
" the most that can be said for our ancestors is, that 
they tried gentler means at first, which they found 
utterly ineffectual, and that they then followed the 
example of the authorities in most other states, and in 
most ages of the world." (Vol. I. 182.) In their own 
vindication, published at the time (see Hub. 573), they 
say, " our own just and necessary defence calling upon 
us (other means failing), to offer the point of the sword 
which these persons have violently and wilfully rushed 
upon, and thereby become felones de se, which, O that 
it might have been prevented, and the sovereign law, 
salus populi, been preserved!" Like insects in the 
evening, rushing into a lighted candle to their own cer- 
tain destruction, in spite of all resistance, these infatu- 
ated beings were so bent on martyrdom, that they could 
not be restrained while a gallows was standing. It 
was an intensely trying time with our fathers, and 



54 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

nobody can impugn their motives. These violent pro- 
ceedings on both sides began to assume a milder type 
immediately after these appalling executions. The 
prisons were at length cleared of Quakers, who, after 
these first ebullitions of fanaticism were over, settled 
down by degrees into a more quiet state, organizing 
themselves into societies or " meetings " for religious 
purposes. They have long since taken rank among our 
most inoffensive and respectable citizens. If the penal- 
ties of that day would not be inflicted on similar out- 
rages now, neither would the Quakers of our day have 
incurred such penalties then. 

Closely connected with these Quaker disturbances, 
and growing out of them in part, came in the custom 
of raising ministers' salaries by taxation. The whole 
business of providing ministerial support, as we have 
had occasion to notice in another place, was left with 
the deacon, who generally found no difficulty in obtain- 
ing from door to door through the parish, such supplies 
as were wanted beyond the regular Sabbath collection. 
But these vehement and continual tirades against 
a learned and money-seeking ministry (which were 
getting vent among Antinomians and Anabaptists 
before the Quakers came) at length began to operate 
on many otherwise well-disposed persons, who could 
see no objection to the idea of having the glorious 
Gospel made more " free ; " while some would even be 
content with what was a little less glorious and learned, 
so the cost be proportionably less. Contributions, there- 
fore, were falling off, and the deacons' labor in making 
up the deficiency was increasing, as these views spread 
through the community. Ministers were beginning to 
leave their flocks for lack of support, when, in 1654, the 
general court of Massachusetts investigated the matter, 
and " ordered that the county court in every shire shall, 
upon information given them of any defect of any con- 
gregation or township within the shire, order and 
appoint what maintenance shall be allowed to the 
ministers of that place, and shall issue out warrants 
to the select men to assess, and the constable of the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 55 

said town to collect the same, and to distraine the said 
assessment upon such as shall refuse to pay." (Mass. 
Col. Rec. Vol. IV. 199.) The first law bearing on 
ministerial support in the Plymouth colony was passed 
the same year ; and the reason for it was the same, 
namely, " railing and ranting " against the ministry. 
But the law proceeded no further than to authorize 
magistrates to " use all gentle means to upbraid " the 
delinquents " to do their duty therein," with discretion- 
ary power to use other means, in a small way, with 
such as "resist through plain obstinacy against an 
ordinance of God." As this law could not stop " rail- 
ing and ranting," so neither did it cure the mischief 
which railers and ranters had already inflicted on the 
community by their ceaseless appeals to ignorance, 
envy, and avarice, stimulated and intensified as these 
appeals were by spiritual pride. Accordingly, in 1657, 
the general court undertook to enforce the support of 
ministers by the assessment of a tax, levied in " a just 
and equal proportion upon the inhabitants" of each 
town, who " refuse to clear their part with the rest of 
the church or town, in the due maintenance and sup- 
port of the ministry, — this law to be in force only to 
them, but not unto others that do their duty." 

Whatever may be said about the expediency of re- 
sorting to legal coercion in supporting public worship 
now, this law embodies in its preamble one reason for 
it which must have had great weight then, namely, 
" Inasmuch as the several townships were granted by 
the government in consideration that such a company 
might be received as should maintain the public wor- 
ship and service of God there." (Plym. Col. Rec. 
101-2.) It was merely requiring the inhabitants of a 
town to comply with the terms on which their land was 
given them, and their municipal rights secured. And 
here leaks out a secret, which hitherto seems to have 
eluded the historian's search, namely, the origin of 
towns, as that term is understood among us — these 
" little republics " which cover the entire face of New 
England, and are not found to any considerable extent, 



56 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

out of it They originated in the piety and church 
polity of our fathers, those punctilious men, who re- 
volted at the idea of setting up a new plantation on a 
grant of land too small to contain settlers enough to 
support public worship, or too large for them all to meet 
conveniently in one place. The town corporation is 
the offspring of Puritan Congregationalism. The old 
custom of granting a " precinct " — a territorial section 
of a town whose population were deemed sufficient for 
the establishment of a second church, and the mainte- 
nance of another minister — accords with the view here 
given. 

In approaching the end of this period, we take leave 
of the first generation of New England's worthies, or 
rather, in turning round to bid them adieu, we discover 
that most of them have already taken leave of us. 
That bright constellation of learned ministers and pious 
magistrates which appeared in this western hemisphere 
in the early part of the seventeenth century, presiding 
over the beginnings of Massachusetts, and shaping 1 its 
destiny, had nearly set before the year 1660 went out ; 
and their places in the firmament were occupied by stars 
of a somewhat different, if not of a diminished, lustre. 
The period embracing these first forty years began even 
then to be looked back upon for models and precedents, 
as it has been ever since. It was indeed a distinguished 
age. The leading actors in it were distinguished men 
— men of original ideas, of independent resources, w r ho 
determined the type of New England character, and to 
whose teachings the world will ever refer for the princi- 
ples, and what may be called the patrology, of New 
England Congregationalism. A glance at some of 
their names and obituary dates, such as one catches 
in passing through an old grave-yard, and rubbing the 
moss from here and there a weather-beaten stone, seems 
a fitting close of this chapter. 

John Robinson, who, though not permitted to come 
here in person, yet took a leading part in laying the 
foundation of the civil and religious institutions of 
Massachusetts, and of all New England, died at Ley- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 57 

den, March 1, 1625. "Robert Cushman,the official agent 
and wise counsellor of the Plymouth Pilgrims, the 
preacher, too, of the first New England sermon ever 
printed, expired the next year. John Carver, their first 
governor, and the author, undoubtedly, of that cele- 
brated compact which they subscribed in the cabin of 
the Mayflower. — the germ from which our great Re- 
public has grown, — had departed still earlier in April, 
1-621. Doctor Samuel Fuller, whose medical and 
ecclesiastical prescriptions were alike sought for, and 
equally availing, died at Plymouth in 1633. Elder 
Brewster, the oldest of the Mayflower company, who 
took joyfully the spoiling of his goods in fostering the 
church before its exile from England, and for twenty- 
three years was its teacher and exemplar in their wilder- 
ness home, entered into rest on the 16th of April, 1643. 
Rev. John Lothrop, who was followed by his devoted 
flock from the Clink prison in London to " the wilder- 
ness of Scituate," and thence, after a temporary sojourn, 
to the equally wild woods of Barnstable, ended his 
toilsome pilgrimage, Nov. 8, 1653, leaving behind him 
a reputation for " great learning," and (still better) for 
being " of a humble heart and broken spirit, lively in 
dispensing the word of God, studious of peace, furnished 
with godly contentment, willing to spend and tq be 
spent for the cause of the church of Christ." Governor 
Edward Winslow, the Christian gentleman and discreet 
agent by whose influence " the attempts of many ad- 
versaries to overthrow the whole settlement of New 
England, were themselves wholly overthrown," de- 
parted May 8th, 1655. Governor William Bradford 
followed him after two years, May 9, 1659, distin- 
guished alike for his learning and modesty, his 
piety and patriotism. Both these Plymouth gov- 
ernors have done the world inestimable service as 
authors. Were it not for their journals, the most im- 
portant chapter in our history could never be written. 
The heroic Captain Miles Standish, who " fell asleep in 
the Lord, and was honorably buried at Duxbury " in 
1656, and his still more heroic pastor, Rev. Ralph Par- 



58 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

tridge, who rested from his labors in 1658, are all the 
names that can be added to this list from the Plymouth 
colonists, without transcending the limits of a brief 
sketch. 

In the Massachusetts colony, Rev. Francis Higgin- 
son, the founder and first teacher of the Salem church, 
distinguished for his strong mental powers and faith- 
ful preaching, died August 6, 1630. The devoted 
wife of Mr. Isaac Johnson, known as " the lady Ar- 
bella," departed the same month, who was followed a 
month later by her bereaved husband, " a holy man and 
wise." Rev. Samuel Skelton, the fellow-laborer of 
Hfgginson at Salem, as he had also been his " com- 
panion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience 
of Jesus Christ," was called away August 2, 1634. 
Rev. John Harvard, the honored founder of our vener- 
able university, died on the 14th of September, 1638. 
Rev. Jonathan Burr, the " heavenly-minded " pastor of 
Dorchester, was taken August 9, 1641. Rev. George 
Phillips of Watertown, " better acquainted with the 
true church-discipline than most of the ministers that 
came with him into the country," departed July 1, 1644. 
Rev. Thomas Hooker, "the light of the western 
churches," located first at Cambridge, and then at 
Hartford, in the Connecticut colony, died July 7, 1647. 
Rev. Henry Greene of Reading finished his labors 
October 11, 1648. On the 26th of March, 1649, Gov. 
John "Winthrop, the " American Nehemiah ; " and on 
the 25th of August the same year, Rev. Thomas Shep- 
ard, " the model pastor and servant preacher," were re- 
moved by death. Rev. John Cotton, 

" His very name a title-page ; and next, 
His life a commentary on the text," 

died on the 23d of December, 1652, more lamented, 
probably, than any other, of the fathers of New Eng- 
land, as his influence had doubtless contributed more 
than that of any other to settle the details of New 
England institutions. Governor Thomas Dudley of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 59 

Roxbury, and Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, both 
departed the next year, 1653 — each distinguished alike 
for his profound knowledge of civil government, and 
Christian theology. The names of Rev. Messrs. Mav- 
erick of Dorchester, James of Charlestown and New 
Haven, Noyes of Newbury, Rogers of Ipswich, Bulkley 
of Concord, Hooke of Taunton, Norris and Peters of 
Salem, and Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard, together 
with many others which these will suggest, belong to 
the same cloud of witnesses, of whom we may say as 
the apostle does (Heb. 11 : 13) when grouping the Old 
Testament worthies, " These all died in faith, not hav- 
ing received the promises, but having seen them afar 
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, 
and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
the earth." 



60 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER V. 

1660-1670. 

Gathering of twelve churches. — Rise of the Baptists. — Apology for their 
intolerant treatment. — Synod of 1662. — Half-way covenant, its introduc- 
tion, and mischievous effects. — The Regicides, and the protection they re- 
ceived from Davenport and Russell. — Colonel Goffe's journal and corre- 
spondence. 

The restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, 
and with it the prelacy, — now eager to make reprisals 
for the damage it had suffered from the temporary 
triumph of Puritanism — soon turned the stream of 
emigration back to New England, which, during the 
Protectorate, had flowed the other way ; and church 
extension received a new impulse. In Massachusetts 
twelve Congregational churches were added, during the 
next ten years, to the forty-six already planted. 

The first of these were gathered at Northampton, on 
the 18th of June, 1661, composed chiefly of colonists 
from Springfield; and Rev. Eleazar Mather was or- 
dained the week following. He had been preaching 
there for the space of three years, preparatory to this 
step. 

On the 11th of November, 1663, a church was 
organized in Billerica, and Rev. Samuel Whiting, Jr., 
son of the Lynn minister of that name, was ordained 
the same day. A meeting-house had been built, and 
the ministry sustained several years earlier, the church- 
members still retaining their relation to Cambridge, 
from which the town of Billerica was set off in 1655. 

The present church of Wenham was constituted, and 
Rev. Antipas Newman ordained over it, December 10th 
of the same year (1663.) This was eight years after 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 61 

the first organized church in that town had removed 
with their pastor to Chelmsford, as has been already 
noticed. 

The original church in Bridgewater (now West 
Bridgewater) was gathered from the Duxbury church, 
February 18, 1664, and Rev. James Keith, " a young 
student " from Aberdeen, in Scotland, was settled at 
the same time. His parish then covered all the terri- 
tory now embraced within the four Bridgewaters. 

The church in Groton was formed July 13, 1664, and 
Rev. Samuel Willard, the first pastor, was ordained the 
same day. Some of the first settlers emigrated from 
Roxbury, among whom was Rev. John Miller, who is 
supposed to have supplied them with preaching for 
several years prior to the organization of the church. 

The next week, July 20, 1664, a church was gathered 
at " Cambridge Village " — now Newton — and Rev. 
John Eliot, Jr., of Roxbury, was ordained over it at the 
same time. His father, eight years before, preached 
his first sermon to the Indians on Nonantum Hill, 
within the limits of this new parish, where the son, 
having acquired their language, had often assisted him 
in holding forth the word of life. 

The organization of the First church in Marlboro' 
took place some time in 1666 — probably October 3, 
when Rev. William Brimsmead, their first pastor, was 
ordained, who had labored there five or six years before 
a church was gathered. 

The town of Mendon was incorporated in 1667, and 
a church was probably formed not far from that time. 
Rev. Joseph Emerson, the first pastor, was ordained 
December 1, 1669. The original settlers went from 
Brain tree, Weymouth, and Roxbury. 

It is supposed that the First church in Amesbury 
was gathered in 1668, the year in which the town was 
incorporated ; but no ecclesiastical record is found prior 
to the settlement of Rev. Thomas Wells, in 1672. 

The third church in Boston — the Old South — se- 
ceded from the first May 12, 1669, on account of the call 
and settlement of Rev. John Davenport ; and on the 16th 



62 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

of February, 1670, Rev. Thomas Thatcher, formerly of 
Weymouth, was inducted into the pastoral office. A 
majority of the First church had taken ground against 
the action of the synod of 1662 in regard to the half- 
way covenant, which Dr. Davenport also strenuously 
opposed; hence the separation, which, in its sequel, 
formed an important chapter in that bitter controversy 
which agitated all the churches in New England for 
many years.* 

The church in Hatfield colonized from the Hadley 
church about the year 1670, but no surviving record tells 
the exact date. 

The present Congregational church in Marshpee, 
originally composed of " praying Indians," was gathered 
August 17th, 1670, through the missionary labors of Mr. 
Richard Bourne, who was ordained over it by Eliot and 
others at the time of its formation. 

It was during this period that the first Baptist church 
got established in Massachusetts ; and as the rise of this 
sect had an influential bearing on the subsequent eccle- 
siastical proceedings of our fathers, some notice is due 
to the circumstances attending their advent and organ- 
ization. For the space of forty-three years from the 
landing at Plymouth, the Congregationalists occupied 
the ground alone in respect to church organisms, unless 
w 7 e except the Newbury church, which for a while as- 
sumed the Presbyterian form, so far as any single church 
can. ^t length in 1663, a number of seceders from Rev. 
Mr. Newman's congregation in Seekonk were consti- 
tuted a Baptist church by mutual covenant, and met for 
separate worship at the house of one of their number. 

* " The dispute between the two churches ran * so high, that there 
was imprisoning of parties and great disturbances/ 4 Two parties 
were produced, not in the other churches only, but in the state also/ 
But the new church, and its friends through the colony, achieved a 
public and final triumph ; a triumph to be regretted, as involving the 
consummation of a wide and pernicious departure from the primitive 
gospel discipline of the New England churches; to be rejoiced in, as 
confirming the rights of freemen to many who had been unjustly de- 
prived of them." — Wisner's Hist. O. S. Ch. pp. 8, 10. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. ' 63 

All this was " a breach of order," according to laws then 
in force, and the court of assistants " fined each of them 
five pounds," at the same time ordering them " to desist 
from the said meeting in that place or township within 
this month. Yet, in case they shall remove their meet- 
ing unto some other place, where they may not preju- 
dice any other church, and shall give us any reasonable 
satisfaction respecting their principles, we know not but 
they may be permitted by this government so to do." 
(Plymouth Records.) In accordance with this last sug- 
gestion, at the next session of the general court, a large 
tract, called Wannamoiset, embracing the present town 
of Swanzey, where the church is now located, was 
granted them ; and to that place they peaceably with- 
drew. 

Some two years later, namely, on the 28th of May, 1665, 
several seceders from the Charlestown church, and four 
or five others, who had sustained a Baptist connection 
in England, entered into covenant, and became the First 
Baptist church in Boston. This, too, being " in defiance 
of a standing law," the actors were fined ; and some of 
them refusing to pay were imprisoned. With many 
irritating annoyances they kept up their meetings, some- 
times in one place and sometimes in another, but usu- 
ally on " Noddle's Island," till, in 1680, they found 
themselves in quiet possession of a meeting-house of 
their own, near the spot where they ever after met for 
worship, till the erection of their present new and ele- 
gant house on Somerset street. . While these things 
were going on, or a little earlier, three Baptists from 
Rhode Island, came to Lynn, where they were arrested, 
taken to Boston, and tried on the charge of " disturbing 
the peace of the congregation, and professing against 
the institution of the church, as not being according to 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ." They were fined various 
sums, and one of them, Obadiah Holmes, was whipped. 
In explanation of this last-named act, it ought to be 
stated, that the sentence of the court was " thirty pounds, 
to be paid, or sufficient sureties that the said sum shall 
be paid, by the first day of the next court of assistants, 



64 * CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

or else to be well whipt." (Court Record in Backus' 
Hist. Vol. I. 231.) A contemporary minister of Boston, 
apologizing to Sir Richard Saltonstall, then in England, 
about this unpleasant affair, says : " As for his whipping, 
it was more voluntarily chosen by him than inflicted on 
him. His fine was offered to be paid by his friends for 
him freely, but he chose rather to be whipped ; in which 
case, if his suffering of stripes was any worship of God 
at all, surely it could be accounted no better than will 
worship." 

This is an epitome of the whole story about the per- 
secutions which the Baptists suffered from " the standing 
order " in Massachusetts, during those early times ; for 
the banishment of Roger Williams had nothing to do 
with baptism, pro or con. He was not a Baptist, and 
had no thought of becoming one, till after this event. 
The opposite of this has been often asserted, but never 
proved. It has been said that he would have been 
dipped sooner " could he have found an agreeable ad- 
ministrator." (Backus' Hist. Vol. I. 105.) But the 
only authority produced is a hearsay report, that when 
he removed from Plymouth to Salem, in 1634, Elder 
Brewster expressed to somebody the fear " that he would 
run the same course of rigid separation and Anabaptistry, 
which Mr. John Smyth of Amsterdam had run " — a 
suspicion which "Williams at that time would have re- 
pelled as a slander. Indeed, it is not easy to see why 
Mr. Williams' name # has come down to us as a Baptist 
in any sense of the word ; for, renouncing his first bap- 
tism when he received the second, he shortly after re- 
nounced that second and went through life unsettled in 
his views, and professing to be a u seeker " after the right 
way. In all the troubles that befell him in Massachusetts 
he suffered as a Congregational minister of a Congre- 
gational church ; or, in the literal words of his sentence, 
" one of the elders of the church in Salem," who had 
" broached and divulged diverse new and dangerous 
opinions, against the authority of the magistrates, as 
also writ letters of defamation, both of the magistrates 
and churches here, and that before any conviction, and 






IN MASSACHUSETTS. 65 

yet maintaineth the same without any retraction." He 
was not the only Congregational minister called to ac- 
count, and compelled to retract, in those punctilious 
times. Marmaduke Matthews and John Eliot were 
both censured by the same court that were dealing with 
Roger Williams, and that too for opinions, either 
preached or printed ; and both retracted. Even John 
Cotton barely escaped being brought to trial during the 
Antinomian controversy (Hutch. Vol. I. 74); while 
Endicott, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, for 
cutting the cross out of the colors at Salem, as a "rel- 
ique of antichrist," was arraigned, admonished, and dis- 
qualified for holding public office one year. Had he 
been as insolent and refractory under the treatment as 
Williams was, who instigated to the act, he would 
probably have been banished with him ; and had he then 
turned Baptist, or Quaker, or Seeker, there would have 
been just as much reason for raising the cry of "relig- 
ious persecution," as in the case of Roger Williams, and 
Samuel Gorton, and several others, who acquired a mar- 
tyr fame simply by suffering as " evil-doers." 

These remarks are made merely out of respect for 
historical verity, and can be accepted without excusing 
in the least degree the intolerance which our Congre- 
gational fathers really showed toward other religious 
sects. That intolerance, when we look at it from our 
stand-point, has an exceedingly rough and repulsive 
aspect ; but as seen from theirs, it assumes quite another 
form, and admits of palliation. Transporting ourselves 
back to Plymouth rock in 1620, or to Salem in 1628, or 
to Charlestown in 1630, as we see companies of relig- 
ious men and Christian ministers, with wives and chil- 
dren, and the scanty remains of their little earthly all, 
setting foot on the bleak shores of an unbroken wilder- 
ness, for no other purpose than to enjoy their own forms 
of religious worship, and to plant churches after a par- 
ticular model (deemed by them the primitive), we can- 
not wonder that they should greatly desire to be left at 
liberty now to develop their religious ideas undisturbed^ 
or even should speak out the earnest wish that their 

5 



66 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

fellow-sufferers of different ideas, coming into the same 
wilderness for a similar purpose, would be pleased to 
pass a little to the right, or a little to the left, along such 
a roomy coast, if they desire the same liberty. So far 
as the spirit of exclusiveness, or antagonism to other 
denominations, can be truthfully charged upon our Con- 
gregational fathers of that day^ it has this extent — no 
more ; a fault, by the way, not yet entirely cured in any 
wof the sects, nor deemed peculiarly heinous while con- 
fined to the simple expression of a wish to be thus let 
alone. But they proceeded further. Having the con- 
stitutional power to carry out their wish in such a case 
(as we have not)^ rather than fail of accomplishing the 
great object for which they had suffered so much, they 
resorted to legislative enactments.* These enactments, 
so far as they bore heavily on other denominations, were 
merely self-protective, and were called forth by actual 
or threatened encroachments upon their own established 
order. Here we have the full extent of their religious 
intolerance both in spirit and practice. That oft-repeated 
couplet, on which every note in the gamut of denunci- 
ation has been sounded, — 

li Let men of God in courts and churches watch 
O'er such as do a toleration hatch," 

(found in the pocket of Gov. Dudley after his death, and 
which unquestionably expresses the ruling sentiment of 
the age) means just this, and nothing more. Having a 
chartered right to make such " orders and laws within 
themselves" as they deemed their own welfare to re- 



* Cotton Mather, alluding to the Quaker troubles, remark's, — and 
the remark will apply to the Baptists as well, — " It was also thought 
that the very Quakers themselves would say, that if they had got 
into a corner of the world, and with an immense toil and charge 
made a wilderness habitable, on purpose there to be undisturbed in 
the exercise of their worship, they would never bear to have the New 
Englanders come among them, and interrupt their public worship, 
and endeavor to seduce their children from it, yea, and repeat such 
endeavors, after mild entreaties first, and then just banishments, to 
oblige their departure." — Magn. B. VIII. p. 24. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 67 

quire, restricted only by the clause " not repugnant to 
the laws of England," where toleration was a thing not 
known, they did as here said ; and if we measure our 
censure by the real magnitude of their offence, we can 
easily pardon their wrong doings in this matter.* Or, 
if they are to be condemned for intolerance toward the 
Baptists, let the sentence embrace all similar acts per- 
petrated against their own denomination also, in re- 
quiring them to ask leave of magistrates when organ- 
izing churches, and forbidding them to settle ministers 
who were offensive to the general court. 

It is much to be regretted, though not to be won- 
dered at, that our fathers ever fell into this way of sub- 
jecting religious and ecclesiastical matters to state 
control. It has been a fruitful source of mischief in 
many ways. It came about, however, not by any 
efforts to unite church and state, but by neglecting suit- 
able and seasonable efforts to prevent it. We have 
already seen how the state of Massachusetts was born 
of the church, and grew up under its tutelage, — exer- 
cising its juvenile functions, as in duty bound, chiefly 
for the benefit and behoof of the church according to 
the original end and aim of its organic being. Its free- 
men at first were all members of the church. Its gov- 
ernors and magistrates were taken from among the 
pillars of the church; and their constant advisers were 
the ministers, who at that time were in fact the rulers, 
both in church and state. Mr. Hubbard says (Hist. 
N. Eng. 182), " Such was the authority they, especially 
Mr. Cotton, had in the hearts of the people, that what- 



* As early as 1718, Cotton Mather, writing to Lord Barrington, 
says: " No church on earth, at this day, so notably makes the terms 
of communion run parallel with the terms of salvation, as they are 
made among this people. The only declared basis of union among 
them is that solid, vital, substantial piety, wherein all good men of 
different forms are united. And Calvinists with Lutherans, Presby- 
terians with Episcopalians, Pedo-baptists with Anabaptists, beholding 
one another to fear God and work righteousness, do with delight sit 
down together at the same table of the Lord ; nor do they hurt one 
another in the holy mountain." — M. H. Col. Vol. I. 105. 



68 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

ever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an 
order of court, if of a civil, and set up as a practice in 
the church, if of an ecclesiastical, concernment." Viewed 
from whatever point of observation, the civil power 
during those early years was only a convenient, or 
perhaps we should call it a necessary, arrangement 
whereby a company of intelligent and pious people, 
grouped into a number of affiliated churches, were 
working oat a great religious problem. They so under- 
stood it.* And we are bound to interpret their acts in 
accordance with this view. Thus interpreted, the 
ecclesiastical character of their legislation was not 
unnatural nor inconsistent. Nor do their legislative 
acts strike us as very singular, considered as proceeding 
from a church in the orderly management of its own 
affairs, and designed chiefly to regulate the conduct of 
its own members. But this relation of the state to the 
church was still kept up long after the circumstances 
from which it originated had passed away, or were 
materially changed. And here was the great error. 
The infant state, all the while approaching the condi- 
tion and capabilities of manhood, should have been 
permitted to enter on an independent manhood, invested 
with civil functions alone; while those which were 
purely religious and ecclesiastical should have remained 
with the church, in whose hands alone they belonged. 
It was the fault of the church that it was not so ; and 

* " Instead of blaming our fathers for establishing such a connec- 
tion as they did between church and state, we have cause to wonder 
that they established so much of a distinction. No instance of a 
nation without an established religion — of a complete separation be- 
tween church and state — had. ever yet existed. Our fathers, more- 
ever, as a body, came to this wilderness solely to obtain the unmo- 
lested enjoyment and exercise of what they considered Christian priv- 
ileges and duties. With this object in view they had purchased the 
country, and procured a charter, and made so many sacrifices. In 
the mother country all their sufferings had proceeded from the tyran- 
nizing of the civil power over the church. How natural for them to 
resolve when they came here, to keep the civil power subordinate to 
the churches, an instrument of promoting their prosperity." — Wis- 
ner's History of the Old South Church in Boston, p. 71. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 69 

dearly has it since been atoned for. But the character 
of the civil magistracy with which New England was 
then blessed rendered it desirable, and seemingly safe, 
to let the relation continue, and to allow the civil 
power authority in matters pertaining to the "first 
table," as well as the " second," in the familiar phrase- 
ology of that day. Thus by degrees, a union of church 
and state was at length consummated, which, though 
essentially unlike that from which our fathers fled in 
England, and embodying principles which would in- 
evitably lead to a clear separation at length, nevertheless 
worked out many evils before that point was reached ; 
evils, too, of worse portent to the Congregational 
churches than any which we have yet seen inflicted on 
the Quakers or Baptists, as will be developed in the 
progress of this sketch. 

The period now under review is memorable for a 
warm and wide spread controversy on the relations and 
responsibilities of baptized children, which resulted in 
the calling of a synod, and the inauguration of a new 
style of church-membership, grounded on what has 
been significantly termed the " Half-way Covenant." 
This innovation, so far at least as respects the Massa- 
chusetts churches, came in through a pious desire to 
promote the spiritual welfare of their children. But its 
disastrous results, sweeping through successive genera- 
tions like a constitutional malady in the human system, 
admonish us that innovations in religious things should 
have some better basis than pious intentions. 

It has been already remarked, in describing the origin 
of the Hadley church in 1659, that the controversy 
began in Connecticut. From Trumbull's History (Vol. 
I. 297-99) it would seem that civil and political con- 
siderations entered somewhat largely into the merits of 
the question there ; and that, through a desire to o*btain 
"the honors and privileges of church-members," a con- 
siderable " party were for admitting all persons of a 
regular life to a full communion in the churches, upon 
their making a profession of the Christian religion, 
without any inquiry with respect to a change of heart." 



70 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

This, however, was by no means the state of feeling in 
Massachusetts at the outset ; nor did it predominate in 
Connecticut. The prevailing idea in both colonies was 
such as a Puritan grandfather might be supposed to 
have, whose children, baptized in infancy, had become 
parents themselves, and, remaining in an unconverted 
state, could not bring forward their children for baptism. 
To such a Puritan, such children were little better off 
than respectable pagans, — "being aliens from the 
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the cove- 
nants of promise." Still, the bulk of that third genera- 
tion were outwardly correct, and serious-minded ; 
though they could give no such account of their re- 
generation as would embolden them to come to the 
Lord's table, or entitle them to do so if they would. 
" Wherefore," says Cotton Mather, in summing up the 
reasonings of that day (Mag. B. V. part 3, § 1), " for our 
churches now to make no ecclesiastical difference 
between these hopeful candidates for those our further 
mysteries, and pagans who might happen to hear the 
word of God in our assemblies, was judged a most un- 
warrantable strictness, which would quickly abandon 
the biggest part of our country unto heathenism. And 
on the other side, it was feared, that if all such as had 
not yet exposed themselves by censurable scandals 
found upon them, should be admitted unto all the priv- 
ileges in our churches, a worldly part of mankind might, 
before we are aware, carry all things into such a course 
of proceedings as would be very disagreeable unto the 
kingdom of heaven." This appears to be a comprehen- 
sive and truthful view of the real dilemma into which 
they had come, and which they, strangely enough, 
thought they should exactly meet by instituting a sort 
of half membership, for the benefit of these half 
Christians. 

The steps through which they reached this conclusion 
were taken on this wise. The Connecticut ministers 
who favored the measure, perceiving that "many* of 
their people were very scrupulous about any innova- 
tion," looked to the magistrates ; who, after correspond- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 71 

ence with their brother magistrates in Massachusetts, 
prepared twenty-one questions on the subject, and then 
" mutually called together sundry of the ablest minis- 
ters of each colony," to consider them. They met at 
Boston in June, 1657. The result of their discussions 
did not get before the public in a printed form till 1659. 
It then came forth under the title of " A Disputation 
Concerning Church-Members and their Children," in 
which this ground was taken : " It is the duty of infants 
who confederate in their parents, when grown up unto 
years of discretion, though not yet fit for the Lord's 
supper, to own the covenant they made with their 
parents, by entering thereinto in their own persons ; and 
it is the duty of the church to call upon them for the 
performance thereof; and if, being called upon, they 
shall refuse the performance of this great duty, or other- 
wise do continue scandalous, they are liable to be cen- 
sured for the same by the church. And in case they 
understand the grounds of religion, and are not scanda- 
lous, and solemnly own the covenant in their own per- 
sons, wherein they give up both themselves and their 
children unto the Lord, and desire baptism for them, we 
see not sufficient cause to deny baptism unto their chil- 
dren." (Hubbard, 566.) 

Other points were made, but this was the great one 
involved in the controversy. Those who had favored it 
in theory began now to put it in practice. But many 
of the churches, and some of the more influential min- 
isters, resisted strongly ; " yea," says Cotton Mather 
(who was a zealous apologist for the measure), " it 
met such opposition as could not be encountered with 
any thing less than a synod of elders and messen- 
gers from all the churches in the Massachusetts colony." 
(Mag. II. B. V. Part 3, § 4.) Accordingly the celebra- 
ted synod of 1662 was convened, in which the conclu- 
sion of the previous assembly, with slight modifications, 
making it more binding, was adopted " by a majority 
of more than seven to one." But this did not end the 
controversy ; it rather opened it afresh. President 
Chancey of Harvard College came out against the inno- 



72 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

vation in a book, entitled " Anti-Synodalia Americana," 
and Rev. John Allin of Dedham on the other side, en- 
tered the lists in its defence. " Another Essay for Inves- 
tigation of the Truth," the most able of all the anti- 
synodalian pamphlets, from the pen of Rev. John 
Davenport, then of New Haven, with a preface from 
Rev. Increase Mather, was promptly responded to by 
Messrs. Richard Mather of Dorchester and Jonathan 
Mitchel of Cambridge. Nor was it merely a war of 
words. Actual secessions took place in the churches of 
which we have already noticed two, — the Hadley 
church, which seceded in opposition to the new doc- 
trine, and the Old South church, Boston, in defence of 
it. The synodists at length carried the day, and the 
half-way covenant came into general practice in the 
Congregational churches throughout New England. 

In reviewing the process through which this disas- 
trous measure was introduced, one is surprised at the 
utter powerlessness of what seems to us the invincible 
arguments brought against it, and the easy conviction 
which seemingly trivial and irrelevant considerations 
produced in its favor. In the preface to Mr. Daven- 
port's pamphlet, the writer says : " The synod did ac- 
knowledge that there ought to be true saving faith in 
the parent, or else the child ought not to be baptized. 
We entreated and urged, again and again, that this, 
which they themselves acknowledged was a principle 
of truth, might be set down for a conclusion, and then 
we should all agree. But those reverend persons would 
not consent to this." And in the disputations of the 
previous assembly of 1657, it seems to us very much 
like reasoning in a circle, or rather in an ellipse, to main- 
tain that the " children of confederate parents are mem- 
bers of the church with them, — else no child could be 
baptized ; " and then, in the next breath, to claim the 
rank of church-membership for these children's children, 
on the ground that their unconverted parents had been 
baptized!* The subject of infant baptism must have 

* The views of Davenport on this point were, that "the children 
of church-members, when they come to age, for not taking hold of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 73 

had some latent practical bearings in that age which it 
did not have in the age preceding, and which it does 
not have in ours. What were they ? As these were 
more fully developed during the next period, some re- 
marks upon them will be offered in another chapter. 

Before taking* leave of this synod, it should be re- 
marked that there were two questions brought before it, 
namely, 1. " Who are the subjects of baptism ? " (which 
received answer as above shown), and 2. " Whether, 
according to the word of God, there ought to be a con- 
sociation of churches, and what should be the manner 
of it? " The answer to this last question was in favor 
of forming a consociation, and a plan was drawn up. 
(See Magnalia, Vol. II. B. V. Part 3; Hubbard, 
589-90.) But it never was carried out. The fifteenth 
and sixteenth chapters of the Cambridge Platform make 
provisions which appear to have been very generally 
deemed sufficient for all practical purposes ; and the 
churches, not without reason, had fears that their proper 
independence would be abridged by such an organiza- 
tion. In Connecticut the consociation scheme received 
more favor, and was ultimately brought into practice, as 
we now see it. 

This chapter shall close with the mention of one 
more incident, which, though it has the aspect of ro- 
mance rather than real history, nevertheless illustrates 
the spirit of the age, and especially of the ministry. 
The same ship that, on the 27th of July, 1660, brought 
to Boston the news that Charles II. was proclaimed 
king, brought also two of the regicide judges. These 



the covenant with the church, do become non-members, and are so 
to be looked at by the church." " In such cases, they are not so 
much as implicitly members. Therefore their children are not to be 
baptized." " If infants should have this right in their grandfathers, 
where shall we stop ? Shall it be extended to a thousand genera- 
tions, as some misapply that promise in Exod. 20 : 6 ? That cannot 
be true ; for then the children of the Jews and Turks and heathen, 
all the world over, have a right to baptism in some of their ancestors 
within that time." — (Hanb Vol. II. p. 63, from " The Power of Cong. 
Churches Asserted and Vindicated." 



74 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

were Edward Whalley, and William GofFe, his son-in- 
law, who had both served as colonels in Oliver Crom- 
well's army. Being men of Puritan principles, and 
bringing letters of recommendation from their pastors 
to the ministers and magistrate^ here, they were kindly 
entertained, and took lodgings in Cambridge, openly at- 
tending public worship on the Sabbath and other days. 
Indeed they were hoping to share in the general pardon, 
till in the following February a requisition for their 
arrest came to Governor Endicott, who, whatever his 
private feelings might have been, was not disposed to 
incur the hazard of disregarding it. Understanding how 
the case stood, they fled to New Haven. Here Mr. 
Davenport, anticipating such an event, had been prepar- 
ing the minds of the people for it, by a series of dis- 
courses from the pulpit. Although nobody was named, 
every one understood who were meant in his fervid ex- 
positions of such texts as these : " Take counsel, exe- 
cute judgment, make thy shadow as the night in the 
midst of the noonday ; hide the outcasts, bewray not him 
that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, 
Moab ; be thou a covert for them from the face of the 
spoiler" (Is. 16:3-4) ; and the regicides, on their arrival, 
were received with great cordiality. But their pursuers 
soon got track of them, and they were obliged to 
abscond, taking refuge in some hiding-place through 
the day, and lying concealed at the parsonage during 
the night. For two years they were passed round from 
house to house and from cave to cave, through the min- 
ister's influence, no one attempting or wishing to betray 
them. The regicides, at length, fearing the consequen- 
ces to Mr. Davenport, who began to be suspected by 
the royal functionaries, proposed of their own accord to 
give themselves up. This they were not allowed to do. 
But they were never seen afterwards in New Haven. 
From a journal kept by Col. Goffe,* w T hich Hutchinson 

* " Goffe kept a journal or diary from the day he left Westminster, 
May 4, until the year 1667. which, together with several other pa- 
pers belonging to him, I have in my possession. Almost the whole is 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 75 

had when composing his history, it appears that the 
minister of New Haven found means of transferring to 
a brother minister this perilous charge. Up the quiet 
valley of the Connecticut river, within the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts Bay, and at the then new town of 
Hadley, Rev. John Russell from Weathersfield, a partic- 
ular friend of Mr. Davenport, had recently settled, to 
whose sacred custody the regicides were committed, and 
within whose walls they were kept concealed fifteen or 
sixteen years, till the day of their death. There is 
reason to hope that the minister lost nothing by his 
boarders, as remittances are known to have been made 
from time to time through a trusty agent. It is sup- 
posed by Hutchinson that nobody in Hadley out of Mr. 
Russell's family had positive knowledge, and but very 
few even a remote suspicion, that such distinguished 
characters were living in the parsonage. True, an un- 
known and oddly dressed figure made his appear&nce 
among them one Sabbath when the worshipping assem- 
bly was suddenly surrounded and assaulted by a band 
of armed Indians, all in sight of Mr. Russell's house, — 
which stranger, by his commanding presence and mili- 
tary skill, so arranged the forces of the village, that the 
Indians were repulsed. But as nobody saw whence he 
came, nor where he went, the people generally supposed 
that an angel had appeared for their deliverance.* 
(Hutchinson, Vol. I. 201.) 



in characters or short-hand, not very difficult to decipher. The story 
of these persons has never yet been published to the world. It has 
never been known in New England. Their papers after their death 
were collected, and have remained near an hundred years in a library 
in Boston." (Hutch. Vol. I. 197.) Nobody knows where they are 
now. 

* A letter from Mrs. Goffe to her exiled husband, written in 1662, 
may be found in the appendix of the first volume of Hutchinson, 
which fully warrants the learned historian's remark, that u there is 
too much religion in their letters for the taste of the present day " 
[1764] ; but this cannot justify the exclusion of such documents from 
historic use. For what end is history written ? To gratify the read- 
er's kt taste," merely, or to make us acquainted with facts ? Unfold- 



76 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

ing a delicate feature of Puritanism, — the very existence of which 
has been called in question, — nothing could have been better suited 
to his purpose than that correspondence, if one may form a judgment 
from the solitary letter here preserved. The following extracts show 
that connubial love among the Puritans suffered no chill from their 
outward austerities, though in giving it a lover's warm expression 
they selected passages from the Scriptures rather than from Shak- 
speare. 

"My Dearest Heart: — 

" I have been exceedingly refreshed with your choice and precious 
letter of the 29th May, 1662. Those Scriptures you mention, 
through mercy, with many others, are a great support and comfort 
to me in this day of my great affliction. Through grace I do experi- 
ence the Lord's presence in supporting and providing for me and 
mine in this evil day. The preservation of yourself and my dear 
father [Col. Whally, his companion in exile], next to the light of his 
own countenance, is the choicest mercy that I enjoy. Ah ! what am 
I, poor worm, that the great God of heaven and earth should con- 
tinue such mercies to me and mine as I at this day enjoy. Many 
others have lost their dear yoke-fellows, and out of all hopes to see 
therein this life ; but that is not my condition as yet, blessed be his 
holy name, for he hath made me hope in his word. Zech. 10:9, 
1 And I will sow them among the people ; and they shall remember 
me in far countries ; and they shall live with their children and turn 
again. Persecution begins to be high here ; the bishops' courts are 
up as high as ever. But we have the promise of a faithful God to 
live upon, and he hath said : ' To you it is given not only to believe 
but to suffer.' He hath also promised to lay no more upon his poor 
people than he will give strength to bear. Oh my Heart ! I do, with 
my whole soul, bless the Lord for his unspeakable goodness to you, in 
that he hath been pleased to appear so eminently for your preserva- 
tion. Oh that the experience that we have daily of his goodness 
may make us trust him for the future ! We have seen that word in 
the 5th of Job, in some measure made good to you. Read the 12th 
verse ; from the 11th to the end of the chapter there is much com- 
fort to those in our condition ; as also in 91st Psalm. O my dear, let 
us henceforth make the Lord our refuge and our trust, and then he 
shall cover thee with his feathers, and be a sanctuary to thee where- 
soever he shall cast thee. I mention these Scriptures because I have 
found comfort in them, and I hope thou wouldst do so too. Oh, my 
dear, let our trust be in the Lord alone. I do heartily wish myself 
with thee, but that I fear it may be a means to discover thee, as it 

was to , and therefore I shall forbear attempting any such 

thing for the present, hoping that the Lord will, in his own time, re- 
turn thee to us again ; for he hath the hearts of all in his hands, and 
can change them in a moment. I rejoice to hear that you are so will- 
ing to be at the Lord's disposal ; indeed we are not our own, for we 
are bought with a price, with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus ; 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 77 

and therefore let us comfort ourselves with this. My dear, I know 
you are confident of my affection ; yet give me leave to tell thee thou 
art as dear to me as a husband can be to a wife ; and if I knew any 
thing that I could do to make you happy, I should do it, if the Lord 
would permit, though to the loss of my life. It is an unspeakable 
comfort to me to hear of thy welfare ; yet I earnestly beg of thee not 
to send too often, for fear of the worst, — for they are very vigilant 
here to find out persons. But this is my comfort : it is not in the 
power of men to act their own will. And now, my dear, with ten 
thousand tears, I take my leave of thee, and recommend thee to the 
great keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, who I hope 
will keep thee and my dear father with thee from all your enemies, 
both spiritual and temporal, and in his own time return you with 
safety to your family. Which is the daily prayer of thy affectionate 
and obedient wife, till death." 



78 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER VI. 

1670-1680. 

Only three churches gathered. — Indian war. — Character of u King Philip.' 1 
— Perils of the Colonies. — Edward Randolph. — Controversy about the 
subject of Baptism. — Synodists and anti-synodists. — The half-way cove- 
nant goes into practice. — Reforming synod, its happy influence. — Various 
customs peculiar to the age. 

Resuming the details of church extension where we 
dropped them in the last chapter, at the close of 1670, 
the next Congregational church which arose in Massa- 
chusetts was that of Tisbury, on Martha's Vineyard. 
Rev. John Mayhew, grandson of Gov. Mayhew, began 
to preach in a small settlement at the southwesterly 
part of that town in 1673, and the probability is that 
the church now there was gathered about the same 
time ; but no surviving record tells the exact date. Mr. 
Mayhew preached a weekly lecture also, in rotation, to 
four or five different Indian assemblies, in addition to 
his pastoral charge. 

The Milton church was organized in 1678, but no 
pastor was settled till the ordination of Rev. Peter 
Thacher, son of Rev. Thomas Thacher, of Boston, 
June 1, 1681. He, too, labored much for the surround- 
ing Indians, and was able to preach fluently in their 
own tongue. 

The church in Westfield was gathered August 27, 
1679, and Rev. Edward Taylor was ordained over it the 
same day. Public worship had been upheld for several 
years previously in this most western of all the settle- 
ments ; but the disturbances occasioned by Philip's war 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 79 

prevented the establishment of the pastoral office at an 
earlier day. 

To this terrible visitation — the ravages of war — must 
be ascribed the fact that these three were the only 
churches planted in Massachusetts during the ten years 
from 1670 to 1680. Indian churches had been gathered 
in various places, and " praying Indians," that is, such 
as renounced Paganism, and met statedly for Christian 
worship, had greatly increased. Just before this war 
broke out, there were two native churches in the Massa- 
chusetts patent, one in that of Plymouth, and three on 
the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, con- 
taining in the aggregate one hundred and seventy-five 
members. Besides these six churches there were thirty- 
three villages of praying Indians, with an aggregate 
population of between four and five thousand souls. 
The magistrates in both colonies had entered upon a 
systematic course of measures for their civilization, and 
the ministers were extensively engaged in labors for 
their conversion. Eliot's Indian Bible, and other books, 
had been printed for their use ; a brick building had 
been erected in connection with the college at Cam- 
bridge for the accommodation of Indian students, and 
two were already matriculated ; five others were prepar- 
ing for college in ministers' families ; and nearly fifty 
teachers and catechists, English and Indian, were em- 
ployed in the religious and educational training of these 
children of the forest. In Gookin's " Historical Collec- 
tions," from which the above facts are derived, the dis- 
bursements in carrying on the operation for one year 
are given, amounting to £728 8s. 6d., with an intima- 
tion that " there is always more occasion to disburse 
than there is money to be disbursed." (Chap. XL § 6.) 
Such was the progress which these Indian missions 
had made, and so cheering were the prospects of still 
greater advance, at the opening of the war which Philip 
of Mount Hope waged in 1674 against all New Eng- 
land. It was designed to be a war of extermination, 
and it raged with merciless barbarity for A the space of 
two years. In that time it had given a check to this 



80 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

missionary enterprise, 4 from which it never recovered. 
The effects were less disastrous in the Plymouth Colony 
and on the islands ; but the field of Eliot's labors was 
nearly ruined.* The idea of Indian treachery took such 
entire possession of the public mind after the sacking 
and burning of some fifteen or twenty towns, that the 
designation of u praying " Indians did not place them 
beyond suspicion, nor screen them from enactments 
designed to bear on Indians in general. The Naticks, 
and others in their neighborhood, though under the care 
of Eliot himself, were hurried down to Deer island, 
where they were kept through the winter of 1675-6 in 
a state of seclusion and suffering, which even his own 
entreaties could not avert. These severe self-protective 
measures were probably necessary, but they alienated 
the Indians, and disheartened their teachers. 

Equally disastrous, but not so enduring, was the in- 
fluence of this war on the progress of church planting 
among the colonists. New settlements were deserted, 
and several newly formed churches disbanded. The 
distressing scenes of savage ferocity that enter into the 
histories of Brookfield, South Deerfield, Hatfield, Lan- 
caster, Concord, Mendon, and Medfield were enacted 
during this period. The wonder is not that church ex- 
tension received a check, but that it ever recovered ; 
not that so many towns were ruined, but that any sur- 
vived. Considered as a military hero, King Philip of 
Mount Hope deserves an even rank with his illustrious 
namesake of Macedon. His diplomatic skill in bring- 
ing mutually antagonist tribes into friendly alliance; 
his deep subtlety in concealing his plans from those 
against whom they were laid; his strategy in carrying 
them into execution; his personal prowess, presence of 
mind, celerity of movement, all mark him out as a most 
accomplished warrior and formidable foe. And if to 



* He tells us that in 1684 "the praying towns" were reduced 
from fourteen to four, and in 1698 the commissioners reported but 
two hundred and five Indians in all Massachusetts Proper, which be- 
fore the war contained 2,100. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 81 

these natural endowments be added the intimate ac- 
quaintance he had with the manners and customs of 
civilized life,* it cannot be doubted that the perils which 
then hung over these defenceless settlements were truly 
appalling. There was a J 76 in that century, as in the one 
succeeding, whose hardships were equalled only by the 
heroism they inspired. It was a struggle for existence, 
as in the following century it was for independence. 

The death of Philip by a musket ball, on the 12th of 
August, 1676, put an end to the war, — an event which 
was celebrated in all the churches with thanksgiving, — 
and was followed by the rebuilding of burnt villages, 
the regathering of disbanded churches, and the restora- 
tion of Christian ordinances, as the decimated and im- 
poverished people were able. But scarcely had the sky 
been cleared of these dark clouds, before it was again 
overcast. The same summer that Philip fell, there came 
to Boston another personage hardly less hostile to the 
colonists, and whom they, in their sore vexation, sarcas- 
ticallv described as "going up and down, seeking to de- 
vour them." (Hutch. Vol. I. 288.) This was the noto- 
rious Edward Randolph, sent as a bearer of despatches 
from the king of England, including copies of com- 
plaints made to his majesty from all sorts of persons 
who had a grudge against any New England person or 
proceeding, either in church or state, — which com- 
plaints this functionary was expected to inquire into 
and report. The relish with which he entered upon the 
business of his agency, and the zeal with which he pur- 
sued it, may be inferred from the fact that in the course 
of nine years he crossed the ocean sixteen times (Hutch. 



* Gookin, only two years earlier, says : " There are some that have 
hopes of their greatest and chiefest sachem, named Philip, living at 
Pawkunnawkeett (Bristol). Some of his chief men, as I hear, stand 
well inclined to hear the gospel; and himself is a person of good un- 
derstanding and knowledge in the best things. I have heard him 
speak very good words, arguing that his conscience is convicted ; but 
yet though his will is bowed to embrace Jesus Christ, his sensual 
and carnal lusts are strong bands to hold him fast under Satan's do- 
minions." — Mass. H. Soc. Coll. Vol. I. p. 200. 

6 



82 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Vol. I. 297), and succeeded at length in creating a rup- 
ture which terminated the charter government, as we 
shall have occasion to notice more particularly in trac- 
ing its influence on the churches. 

But neither King Philip nor King Charles could turn 
the minds of the people away from the all-absorbing 
question then in controversy respecting the subjects of 
baptism. The synod of 1662, as we have already no- 
ticed, had decided that persons baptized in infancy, 
" understanding the doctrine of faith, and publicly pro- 
fessing their assent thereunto, not scandalous in life, 
and solemnly owning the covenant before the church, 
wherein they give themselves and their children to the 
Lord, and subject themselves to the government of 
Christ in the church, their children to be baptized." 
Hitherto only communicants, or such as gave credible 
evidence of regeneration, could offer their children for 
baptism ; now the decision was that these baptized 
children themselves, when they became parents, might 
do the same, if their outward deportment were blame- 
less, though confessedly unregenerate in heart. How 
a doctrine so out of harmony with the spirit, and so 
contrary to the practice, of the first fathers of New 
England, gained such ready currency, and that, too, in 
spite of arguments seemingly invincible, urged against 
it by such powerful reasoners as Davenport and Chaun- 
cy, deserves a moment's consideration. 

From a pile of old pamphlets (" the spoils of time," 
which the Congregational Library Association has res- 
cued from oblivion) now lying on the table where this 
sketch is written, an irresistible impression is derived 
that our fathers, just then, were leaning backwards 
toward certain old notions which their fathers had re- 
nounced; and which renunciation was a part of their 
Puritanism. At any rate, the language which some of 
them employ, as now understood, teaches the doctrine 
of hereditary holiness with nearly as much exactitude 
as another formula of theirs teaches original sin. Sen- 
tences might be picked out, which one could translate 
almost literally into the Latin of Augustine's " credit in 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 83 

altero, qui peccavit in altero" — he who sinned in or 
through another, believes through another. The advo- 
cates of the half-way covenant, or synodists, as they 
were called, say that " the children of church-members 
have membership by birth." To this the anti-synodist 
replies, that no such " meer members " can claim right 
to baptism for their children, inasmuch as they are not 
"believing members." But the synodist parries this 
stroke by interposing the "solemn covenant" which 
they are to "own," and the "doctrine of faith" to 
which they must give their understanding " assent," 
and then asks how persons "thus qualified," can be 
accounted " meer members ; " to which the other re- 
sponds, that if they are any thing more, if they are real 
believers, and on that ground may claim baptism for 
their children, " why not also admit them to the Lord's 
table ? " In answer to this most rational question, noth- 
ing is found in these pamphlets which would satisfy 
anybody in our day. And yet the new measure gained 
ground continually; insomuch that Mr. Mitchel of 
Cambridge, writing to Increase Mather in 1667, tells 
him, " you stand almost alone, while you are against the 
baptizing of such as are described in our fifth proposi- 
tion," and adds in conclusion, " I am not without hope 
that we may be yet of one mind before we die," — a 
hope which was soon to be realized. 

This easy work of gaining converts to a new measure 
so radical as the half-way covenant was, awakens the 
suspicion that the question in controversy had some 
latent bearings outside of its spiritual and ecclesiastical 
scope. Nor is it difficult to discover what those bear- 
ings were, when it is recollected that the law of 1631,. 
limiting the right of franchise to church-members, was 
in force till two years after the new measure was 
adopted; and even then existed in fact, though repealed 
in form. (Hutch. Vol. I. 31.) The number resident in 
the commonwealth who- could neither hold office nor 
vote for officers was large, and growing larger. A spirit 
of discontent had often arisen among immigrants who 
were either not qualified, or were not disposed, to join 



84 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

these Congregational churches; and now the native 
born children of such as were members, having come 
to manhood, in a multitude of instances were no better 
off, and no better suited.* 

To relieve the difficulty, three possible expedients 
offered themselves ; first, to enlarge the civil franchise 
by extending the rights of citizenship beyond church- 
members ; second, to let down the terms of communion 
so as to admit the unregenerate to the fellowship of 
saints ; third, to constitute an intermediate condition, 
which should confer upon the occupant so much of 
church-membership as would bring him fairly within 
the state, and so little as would leave him short of 
full communion in the church. The first of these ex- 
pedients would have disjoined the church and State as 
we now see them, and might have been adopted long 
before with unspeakable advantage to both ; but this 
plan did not comport with the idea which our fathers 
then had of a Christian commonwealth. The second 



* From the first settlement of the country, these Congregational 
churches were charged by outsiders with exclusiveness. In 1641, 
Lechford complains that " most of the persons at New England are 
not admitted of their church." In 1644, Rathband, in his "Brief 
Narration" (See Hanbury, Yol. II. p. 302), affirms that "multitudes 
of our English in New England, yea ; the major part of them are 
there out of church order, and so both they and theirs live little 
better than heathen." In 1646, a petition was sent to the British 
Parliament, praying, as they say, in behalf of " thousands," that the 
disabilities under which they labored might be removed." — Hutch. Vol. 

I. 145. And here, in 1662, we have a synod assembled and devising 
measures to prevent the biggest part of the country from being aban- 
doned to heathenism," by being left out of the church. — Magn. Vol. 

II. 238. Yet in face of all these facts, a learned judge has declared, and 
momentous results have been made to turn on the declaration, that, 
in the early history of these churches, " almost, if not quite all the 
adult inhabitants were church-members ; " that " there was a familiar 
distinction between the church and the whole assembly of Christians 
in the town ;" " little practical distinction between church and congre- 
gation ; " " without doubt, the whole assembly were considered the 
church." — Mass. Term Reports, Vol. XVI. 498, 514. The reader is 
desired to bear these facts in mind when he reaches Chapter XX, 
where judicial decisions, based on these strange perversions of history, 
are recorded. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 85 

was substantially the plan adopted by the English Epis- 
copalians and Scotch Presbyterians, — differing some- 
what in the theory, but agreeing in the practice, of ad- 
mitting to communion such as had been baptized in 
infancy, if they desired it on reaching the age of man- 
hood, provided they were outwardly correct, and could 
" say the catechism." But this would be to surrender a 
point which our fathers deemed of vital moment as a 
condition of full church-membership; namely, satisfacto- 
ry evidence of regeneration. By adopting the third plan 
— the half-way covenant — they seem to have fully be- 
lieved that they were conserving alike the purity of the 
church and the Christianity of the State, besides confer- 
ring privileges of a priceless value, both civil and relig- 
ious, on the rising race. These several lines of argu- 
ment all meeting on the one great question about the 
11 enlargement of baptism," perhaps we ought not to 
wonder that converts to the synod's doctrine were so 
easily made. 

One of the strong points which the anti-synodists 
put forth against this enlargement of baptism was its 
novelty ; it was an innovation upon the usages of their 
fathers ; it was in conflict with the views which they 
had embodied in the Cambridge Platform. And con- 
sidering the reputation which those first fathers of New 
England had earned, and the weight of authority which 
was accorded then, as now, to their opinions and prac- 
tices, it behooved the other side to defend this point with 
especial care. Accordingly, Rev. Increase Mather, after 
his conversion to the synod's doctrine, undertook the 
task in a pamphlet entitled, " The First Principles of 
New England concerning the Subject of Baptism and 
Communion of Churches, collected partly out of the 
Printed Books, but chiefly out of the Original Manu- 
scripts of the First and Chief Fathers of the New Eng- 
lish Churches ; with the judgment of Sundry Learned 
Divines of the Congregational Way in England Con- 
cerning the said Questions. Cambridge, 1675." 

This rare old tract, of which only two or three copies 
are known to exist, is valuable, not only for its patristia 



86 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

lore, but as an illustration of the potency that will 
sometimes get into a word. The author finds in the 
Cambridge Platform, as also in the multitudinous writ- 
ings of those who composed it, the word " member- 
ship " used to denote the relation subsisting between a 
church and its baptized children ; and although the 
sentences in which he finds it do not assign one of the 
functions of a church-member proper to such persons, 
either in childhood or manhood, till after they are re- 
ceived by formal vote on satisfactory evidence of regen- 
eration ; although these fathers treated these baptized 
children in nowise different from what they would if 
they had called them " baptized children," or " children 
of the covenant," still, seizing upon the term, and 
using it in its etymological sense, he finds no difficulty 
in citing passages which contain, as he thinks, the 
germs of the synod's doctrine. Thus an infant mem- 
ber, grown to manhood, becomes an adult member, 
unless cut off; and an adult member, " understanding 
the doctrine of faith, and publicly professing his assent 
thereto," must no longer be accounted a " mere mem- 
ber" (as the anti-synodists, out of respect for the 
ancient terminology, were ready to account such), but 
a "believing member;" and all believing members 
might have their children baptized ; — ergo the doctrine 
of the synod was no innovation.* Stitched on to the 
same pamphlet is " A Discourse concerning Baptism," 
of sixty-eight pages, by the same author, printed also 
in 1675, " wherein the present controversies, that are 
agitated in the new English churches, are, from Scrip- 
ture and reason, modestly inquired into ; " and the 
same magic word " membership " is employed there 



* Even John Cotton, because he once sanctioned the baptism of a 
child on the faith of its grandfather who stood in loco parentis, is 
brought in to support the new doctrine. It is unpleasant to find such 
a revered name as that of Increase Mather associated with such 
special pleading in the advocacy of a favorite measure. And yet it 
illustrates a weakness of human nature against which the best and 
.strongest minds have need to be warned. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 87 

also with the like effect. Indeed, one who attentively 
investigates the subject in dispute, with such lights as 
remain to us, can hardly help suspecting that this dis- 
astrous measure might have failed of being carried, if, 
instead of " membership," some word had been origi- 
nally found which would exactly express the idea which 
all Psedo-Baptists really have of that interesting rela- 
tion which baptized children sustain to a particular 
church, through the confederate membership of their 
parents. 

By way of apology for dwelling so long on the his- 
tory of this transaction, it may here be remarked, that 
it was the inlet of nearly all the errors in doctrine and 
practice that have since infested the Congregational 
churches of New England, as will be seen in the pro- 
gress of this sketch. But to pretend, as some of our 
Baptist brethren do, that these errors sprang from the 
practice of infant baptism, and not rather from its per- 
version, is a fiction, which might be exactly paralleled 
by ascribing the errors of Campbellism to immersion. 
In neither case will an intelligent person of candor 
confound things so utterly unlike. 

During the period now under review, namely, on the 
10th of September, 1679, was held the " Reforming 
synod " — a name sufficiently expressive of its leading 
object. Various causes had contributed to bring on a 
gradual decline of religion and morals. In " Prince's 
Christian History " (Vol. I. 94), the process is thus 
traced through in a single sentence : " A little after 
1660, there began to appear a decay ; and this increased 
to 1770, when it grew very visible and threatening, and 
was generally complained of, and bewailed bitterly by 
the pious among them; and yet much more to 1680, 
when but few of the first generation remained." As 
may naturally be supposed, none laid these things more 
deeply to heart than the ministers ; and nowhere did 
they give more copious vent to their bitter lamentations 
and faithful rebukes, than on those august occasions, 
when called to preach the " Election Sermon." Take 
the following as specimens of the style in which his 



88 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Excellency, the governor, and his associates in the gov- 
ernment, were annually addressed, for ten or fifteen 
years in succession. u How is New England in danger 
this day to be lost, even in New England! To be 
buried in its own ruins ! How is the good grain dimin- 
ished, and the chaff increased ! How is our wine 
mixed with water! What coolings and abatements 
are there to be charged upon us in the things that are 
good, and what have been our glory! We have abated 
in our esteem of ordinances, in our hungering and 
thirsting after the rich provisions of the house of God ; 
in our good stomachs to all that which is set before us 
upon the table of the Gospel. Ah, how doth the un- 
soundness, the rottenness, and hypocrisy of too many 
amongst us make itself known, as it was with Joash 
after the death of Jehoiadah ! " (Mr. Stoughton's Elec- 
tion Sermon, 1668, p. J 6.) "Are we not this day 
making graves for all our blessings and comforts ? 
Have we not reason to expect that erelong our mourn- 
ers will go up and down, and say, How is New Eng- 
land fallen! The land that was a land of holiness, 
hath lost her holiness ! that was a land of righteous- 
ness, hath lost her righteousness ! that was a land of 
peace, hath lost her peace ! that was a land of liberty, 
is now in sore bondage!" (Mr. Walley's Election 
Sermon at Plymouth, 1669, p. 11.) After propounding 
it as " a solemn and serious inquiry," whether his audi- 
tors " have not, in a great measure, forgot their errand 
into the wilderness ; " and reminding them " how care- 
ful you once were, even all sorts, young and old, high 
and low, to take hold of religious opportunities," Rev. 
Samuel Danforth, in his Election Sermon, preached in 
1670, thus appeals to their consciences : " Doth not a 
careless, remiss, flat, dry, cold, dead frame of spirit 
grow upon you secretly, strongly, prodigiously ? " etc. 
(See also two sermons from Rev. W. Adams, in Dr. 
Burgess' Dedham pulpit.) 

Contemporaneously with these signs of spiritual 
declension, there was experienced also a series of tem- 
poral calamities. " Consuming disasters befell the labors 



1ST MASSACHUSETTS. 89 

of the husbandman ; losses at sea were uncommonly 
numerous ; desolating fires wasted the chief seats of 
trade ; a dreadful pestilence raged through the colony ; 
and in the political horizon, a cloud was gathering of 
most portentous aspect." ( Wisner's Hist. O. S. ch. 15.) 
These calamities were associated, in all pious minds, 
with religious backsliding, and from every pulpit came 
the weekly summons to repentance and reformation. 
At length, by the entreaties of ministers, " the general 
court of the Massachusetts colony were prevailed 
withal," says Cotton Mather, " to call upon the churches, 
that they would send their elders and other messengers 
to meet in a synod, for the solemn discussion of these 
two questions : c What are the provoking evils of New 
England ? ' and, ' What is to be done, that so those 
evils may be reformed? ' " (Mag. Book V. Part 4, § 3.) 
The call was responded to by nearly all the churches, 
though not a few of them in the true spirit of Congre- 
gationalism, coupled with their vote of compliance a 
proviso, of like import to the one found in the records 
of the Old South church, Boston, that, " whatever is 
there determined, we look upon and judge to be no 
further binding to us than the light of God's word is 
thereby cleared to our consciences." A general fast 
was kept, as a suitable preparative for the meeting, and 
the entire business of the first day, after the choice of 
two moderators and a scribe, partook of the same char- 
acter. " Several days " were spent " in discoursing 
upon the two grand questions laid before them, with 
utmost liberty granted unto every person to express his 
thoughts thereupon." A committee then drew up the 
result, which after being read twice, and " each para- 
graph distinctly weighed," was unanimously adopted. 

As this " Result," taken in both its parts, is no doubt 
a true daguerreotype of New England character at that 
time, and enables us to measure itstdivergency from the 
primitive line of life, the heads of it are here inserted. 
The " provoking evils " brought to light are these thir- 
teen : 1. " A great and visible decay of the power of god- 
liness amongst many professors ; " 2. Abounding pride, 



90 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

as developed through a spirit of insubordination and 
strife ; 3. Neglect of baptized persons to qualify them- 
selves for " church communion ; " 4. Profaneness, of 
which these two specifications are given, namely, " im- 
precations in ordinary discourse," and "irreverent be- 
havior in the solemn worship of God," such as, " for 
men (though not necessitated thereunto by any infirm- 
ity), to sit in prayer-time, and to give way to their own 
sloth and sleepiness, when they should be serving God 
with attention and intention, under the solemn dispen- 
sation of his ordinances ; " 5. Sabbath-breaking, by 
" unsuitable discourses," u walking abroad," and by not 
being sufficiently careful " so to despatch their worldly 
business, that they may be free and fit? for the duties of 
the Lord's day ; " 6. Remissness in parental government 
and family religion, " many families not praying to 
God constantly, morning and evening ; " 7. " Inordinate 
passions," manifested in " sinful heats and hatreds," 
reproachful language, and " frequent lawsuits ; " 8. In- 
temperance ; 9. " Promise-breaking ; " 10. " Inordinate 
affection unto the world ; " 11. " Incorrigibleness under 
judgments;" 12. Selfishness, as distinguished from pub- 
lic enterprise ; and 13. A persistent disregard of the 
Gospel summons to repentance and reformation. In 
answer to the second question, " "What is to be done ? " 
the synod recommend that " all who are, in place, above 
others, do as to themselves and families become every 
way exemplary ; " that " the faith and order of the 
Gospel, according to what is in Scripture expressed in 
the-] platform of discipline," be reaffirmed by the pres- 
ent generation ; that more care be observed in exacting 
" a personal and public profession of faith and repent- 
ance " from those who are admitted to the Lord's table ; 
as also a closer watch over the deportment of com- 
municants and their children ; that " the utmost en- 
deavors should be used in order unto a fall supply of 
officers in the churches, according to Christ's institu- 
tion ; " that the ministry have a better support, and be 
more promptly paid ; that legal measures be taken to 
suppress intemperance by looking sharply after " houses 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 91 

of public entertainment," and that "inhabitants (that 
is, residents — • not travellers) be prohibited drinking in 
such houses;" that there be a "solemn and explicit 
renewal of covenant" in all the churches ; that in doing 
this, " the sins of the times should be engaged against," 
and reformation pledged ; that " the college, and all 
other schools of learning in every place, be duly in- 
spected and encouraged ; " and, finally, " inasmuch as 
all outward means will be ineffectual, except the Lord 
pour down his Spirit from on high," it is earnestly re- 
commended "to cry mightily unto God," for such an 
effusion of the Spirit. 

In this penitential array of " provoking evils," although 
we discover more evidence of a tender conscience than 
of heinous guilt, still there is seen a marked falling off 
from the spirit of a former age, both in piety and mor- 
als ; and in several specified particulars, the degeneracy 
is precisely what the anti-synodists of 1662 predicted, 
as the first instalment of evil consequences from the 
half-way covenant. Mr. Davenport, in one of his essays, 
had said, " your meer members will soon be a far greater 
number than my sheep and lambs ; " and this was 
rapidly coming to pass, as appears from some of the 
remedial appliances here recommended. But the sol- 
emn and almost universal heed given to this result of 
the synod, " commended," as it was, " by an act of the 
general court, October 15, 1679, unto the serious con- 
sideration of all the churches and people in the juris- 
diction," arrested these fatal consequences for a while, 
and wrought a happy but temporary reform in other 
respects. The most effective step in this attempted 
reformation was the renewal of covenant, in which the 
example of the Massachusetts churches was followed, to 
a considerable extent, by those also in Plymouth and 
Connecticut. From the accounts that have come down 
to us, this appears to have been done not simultaneously, 
or in concert ; but each pastor took his own method, by 
a course of preliminary meetings, to bring the church 
into a fit state of feeling for such an occasion, after 
which, by their concurring vote, the time was set for 



92 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

the solemn transaction. The appointed day was spent 
in fasting. In the forenoon the pastor preached a ser- 
mon suited to the occasion, which was immediately fol- 
lowed by the reading of a covenant — either the one 
into which the members originally entered, with such 
additions as the peculiarity of the case seemed to require, 
or another prepared expressly for the purpose — and all 
the church, standing up, gave their formal assent to it, 
and their express promise to keep it. Then came, in 
the afternoon, another sermon, designed to enforce the 
covenant obligations. Usually this latter sermon was 
preached by some neighboring minister; for these cove- 
nanting days, like the "four-days meetings" of later 
times, commonly drew together a vast concourse from 
neighboring towns. The measure, wherever it was taken 
up and pursued on this wise, was attended with the 
happiest results. " Many thousands of spectators will 
testify," says Cotton Mather, in his Remarks on the 
Reforming Synod, " that they never saw the special 
presence of the great God our Saviour more notably 
discovered, than in the solemnities of these opportuni- 
ties." It may properly be regarded as the first in that 
series of general revivals for which the churches in this 
land have been so distinguished. And, judging from sev- 
eral of the sermons preached on those occasions, found 
among the collections of the Congregational Library 
Association, it was instrumentally brought about very 
much by what is now called " revival preaching." 

In taking leave of this period, we lose sight of sev- 
eral ecclesiastical and civil usages which obtained among 
the first settlers of New England. 

The marriage ceremony, which, for fifty years, was 
invariably performed by a civil magistrate, began now 
to pass into the hands of the clergy ; though it was still 
held to be a civil rite, and not a sacrament. 

To avoid what seemed to them a relic of heathenism, 
our fathers early adopted the custom of expressing dates 
by the number (not the name), of the month, and day 
of the week. Instead of writing " May 15th, 1680," 
they inserted " 3. 15. 1680," — counting the months from 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 93 

March, with which the year then began. From the 
restoration of Charles IL, this way of dating gradually 
gave place to that now in use. But the first day of the 
week was still called " Lord's day," or " Sabbath," and 
never Sunday. 

The distinction between pastor and teacher, in the 
ministerial office, had nearly faded out ; as had the cus- 
tom, also nearly ceased, of having two ministers over the 
same church, except where an aged or infirm pastor re- 
quired a colleague. 

The office of ruling elder, too, had become obsolete — 
or nearly so ; partly from lack of evidence that Christ 
had ever instituted such an office, and partly from the 
difficulty of finding suitable persons to fill it. Neither 
John Cotton, in his " Way of the Churches," nor Cot- 
ton Mather, in his " Ratio Discipline," assigns any func- 
tions to the ruling elder, which are not implied in those 
conferred on the pastor or deacon. To justify its con- 
tinuance, our fathers had apparently sought to magnify 
the office by giving prominence to its disciplinary power; 
which only served to hasten its decline by subjecting it 
to odium.* (See Wisner's Hist. O. S. Church, 79-81.) 



* The office of ruling elder seems never to have had the unan- 
imous sanction of the churches, though John Cotton in his " Way of 
the Churches/' pp. 13-38, argues at great length, and with much pos- 
itiveness in its defence, as " a divine institution." He gives us also to 
understand, ibid. p. 39, that he favored the office of widow or deacon- 
ess (according to 2 Tim. 5 : 9, 10), "to assist in ministering to the 
sick poor brethren in sundry needful services, which are not so fit 
for men to put their hands unto ; only we find it somewhat rare to 
find a woman of so great an age (as the apostle described), to wit, of 
four score years), and withal, to be so hearty, and healthy, and strong, 
as to be fit to undertake such a service." 



94 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER VII. 

1680-1690. 

Six churches gathered. — " Branch " churches, designed to meet the wants 
now met by domestic missions. — Political troubles. — End of the Puri- 
tan commonwealth. — Sir Edmund Andros' tyranny. — Opposition of 
John Wise, and the ministers generally. — The provincial government 
favorable to Congregationalism. 

The civil commotion into which all the colonies were 
thrown by the repeal of their charters during the next 
decade (1680-1690), continued to check, but not to stop, 
the progress of church extension. Six Congregational 
churches were gathered within the limits of this State 
in that time. 

The church in Bradford was constituted December 
27th, 1682, and Rev. Zechariah Symmes, who had al- 
ready been their minister fourteen years, was ordained 
to the pastoral office the same day. Most of the original 
members came from the church in Rowley, from which 
town Bradford was separated in 1675. 

The church in Essex, originally the second in Ipswich, 
was embodied August 12th, 1683, and Rev. John Wise 
was ordained at the same time. Six years before this, 
an attempt was made to have separate worship in that 
part of Ipswich, and Rev. Jeremiah Shepard, son of Mr. 
Shepard of Cambridge, was engaged to preach in a pri- 
vate house. But as he had not then joined himself to 
any Congregational church, the general court disallowed 
the proceeding; for who could assure them that he 
would not set up Episcopacy, or something worse, 
though he was the son of the great Puritan ? Their 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 95 

first attempt to build a meeting-house was also stopped 
by the same authority, after " the sills were laid, and the 
timber in place ready to raise." In this case, however, 
the ladies proved more than a match for the general 
court. Determined to have a "raising," they sallied 
forth into neighboring towns on horseback, and brought 
in men to do what their law-abiding husbands might 
not attempt; and in due time the meeting-house was 
up and finished, by consent of all parties and powers. 
(Dr. Crowell's History of Essex, 107-12.) 

The Marblehead church was separated from the First 
church in Salem, October 13th, 1684, with Rev. Samuel 
Cheever for their first pastor — having sustained a 
" branch " relation, and supported separate worship 
more than forty years. Mr. Cheever had been their 
minister sixteen years at the time of his ordination, and 
was preceded by Rev. William Walton, whose ministry 
commenced in 1637. 

On the 26th of March, 1685, the church in Sherborn 
was gathered, and their first pastor, Rev. Daniel Gookin, 
was ordained. His ministerial labors commenced there 
five years before, but were devoted, in part, to the In- 
dians. 

The First church in Deerfield sprang from the Dedham 
church, as the first settlers came from that town, and was 
probably gathered in March, 1686, when Rev. John Wil- 
liams of Roxbury became their pastor. 

The First church in Danvers — known originally as 
" Salem Village," and now as North Danvers — was sep- 
arated from the First church in Salem, Nov. 10th, 1689, 
with Rev. Samuel Parris for their first pastor. The 
members had been associated as a " branch " of the Sa- 
lem church for eighteen years, having in that time em- 
ployed Rev. Messrs. James Bailey, George Burroughs, 
and Deodab Lawson, in the ministry of the word. 

These branch churches have become sufficiently nu- 
merous to attract notice, as a distinct ecclesiastical feat- 
ure of the age. So far as can be learned from the 
circumstances of each case thus far brought to view, 
this plan, in theory, had a twofold aspect. It looked to 



96 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

the well-being both of the mother church and the young 
daughter, and was intended to guard against a too sud- 
den depletion on the one hand, and a too heavy burden on 
the other. The fundamental idea of a Congregational 
church, namely, a body of confederate believers meeting 
ordinarily in one place, on the Sabbath, would naturally 
require an additional place of worship as the congre- 
gation increased in size, or extended abroad. This 
latter necessity was much the most common ; and to 
meet it, in part, families living six or eight miles from 
the sanctuary were frequently allowed to expend their 
proportion of the parish tax to support preaching among 
themselves, for three or six months of the year, — still 
holding their ecclesiastical relation to the old home, and 
returning there on communion days, and, in fact, con- 
tinuing to worship there after their own scanty supplies 
had failed. By this arrangement they avoided the in- 
discretion, seen in later times, of breaking down one 
strong church to make two feeble ones ; while at the 
same time it afforded a fit opportunity for the " strong 
to bear the infirmities of the weak." It was their mode 
of conducting domestic missions, and may be regarded 
as the first form which this enterprise took in New 
England. As the members of a branch were still en- 
rolled with the church from which it sprang, till a formal 
separation was effected, so its minister was included in 
the eldership of the other, and was often sent with the 
pastor to sit in ecclesiastical councils. The plan of 
church extension lately initiated by the Old South 
church of this city, in some of its most important feat- 
ures, has its prototype in this ancient usage, and seems 
admirably adapted to meet a class of wants in all cities 
and large villages. 

As already intimated, the period through which we 
are now tracing the history of our churches is marked 
by civil commotions which shook the foundations, alike 
of church and State. A political thundercloud had long 
time been rising, which, by imperceptible advances, had 
at length reached the zenith, and fiery bolts fell in rapid 
succession, with scathing effect. It was at the most 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 97 

distressing period in that war which King Philip had 
waged for the purpose of exterminating the New Eng- 
land settlers, that King Charles II. resolved upon the 
project of crushing out their liberties ; " and, while the 
people were yet contending with the natives for the 
possession of the soil, and the ground was wet with the 
blood of the slain," Edward Randolph arrived at Boston, 
charged with its execution. (Barry's Hist. Mass. Vol. 
I. 455,) True to the description, which was aptly 
transferred from another to himself, of " going up and 
down seeking whom he might devour," he succeeded in 
obtaining from the king, first a threat, in 1682, to abro- 
gate the Massachusetts charter, and then, in 1685, its 
formal abrogation. The death of the king, which oc- 
curred immediately after, and the accession of his 
bigoted brother, James IL, were followed, in 1686, by 
the appointment of a temporary president under royal 
commission ; who was succeeded, before the year was 
out, by the tyrannical Sir Edmund Andros as " captain- 
general and governor-in-chief" of all New England, 
with powers sufficiently despotic to suit a Nero. His 
arrest and imprisonment immediately after the news 
came that his royal master was dethroned in 1688, the 
erection of a provisional government similar to the old, 
till the union of the Massachusetts and Plymouth col- 
onies under the new charter of 1692, complete the scene 
of stirring incidents, which, like a moving diorama, pass 
before the eyes of one who sits down to study this chap- 
ter of our history. 

As may well be supposed, these extraordinary events 
in the civil affairs of Massachusetts had a marked influ- 
ence over its religious and ecclesiastical character, and 
must have developed some facts which properly belong 
to this sketch of the churches. 

One noticeable fact is, that it brought in Episcopacy ; 
and on this wise. Randolph had not been long in the 
country without observing that the alarming "inde- 
pendency claimed and exercised " in the goverment of 
Massachusetts, which he was bound to put down, and 
which, he says in a letter to the Bishop of London, " is 

7 



98 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

one chief occasion of the many mutinies and distractions 
in other his majesty's foreign plantations" (Hutch. 
Coll. 540), had its tap-root in the democracy of the 
Congregational churches. Accordingly, in 1682, he 
made an earnest appeal for ministers of the church of 
England to be sent over.* And when the Bishop of 
London interposes a question as to their maintenance, 
he replies, rather curtly, "I did formerly, and do now 
propose, that a part of that money sent over hither, and 
pretended to be expended amongst the Indians, may be 
ordered to go towards that charge;" that is, let the 
funds of the " Society for propagating the Gospel among 
the Indians," instead of going to sustain Indian mis- 
sions, and to print Eliot's Bible, go to pay for reading 
prayers in Boston ! In another letter he proposes, as a 
means of raising funds, that "no marriages hereafter 
shall be allowed lawful, but such as are made by the 
ministers of the church of England." (Hutch. Coll. 
533.) He even intimates that the Congregationalists — 
the more "factious" among them — might be attainted 
of treason, and their property be sequestered to the 
church ; " for if his majesty's laws, as none but fanatics 
question, be of force with us, we could raise a sufficient 
maintenance for divers ministers, out of the estates of 
those whose treasons have forfeited them to his maj- 
esty." {Hatch. Coll. 540.) But to leave no method 
untried, " I humbly represent to your grace," he says in 
another communication, " that the three meeting houses 
in Boston might pay twenty shillings a week each, 
out of their contributions, towards the defraying of 
our church charges, that sum being less per annum 

* Episcopacy, notwithstanding its conceit of an apostolic derivation, 
an unchangeable priesthood, and an unvarying ritual, must have 
changed in some other things between 1682 and 1858, inasmuch as a 
preacher of that order, in this same Puritan city of Boston, from 
which Randolph was then writing, could lately announce as one of 
the reasons why he is an Episcopalian, that " the government of the 
[Episcopal] church is purely republican. It is strikingly analgous 
to that of the municipal, State, and general government, in this coun- 
try." This is just what the Episcopal ministers of that day were sent 
here to overthrow. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 99 

than each of the ministers receive." (Hutch. Hist. 
Vol. I. 314.) 

But whatever was proposed, nothing was actually- 
done toward setting up Episcopacy till 1685. The day- 
after Dudley, the so-called president, entered in form 
upon the duties of his office, an Episcopal clergyman 
who had come over a short time before waited on the 
council, and requested one of the three meeting-houses 
to preach in. This was refused; and he was granted 
" the east end of the town-house " until his flock should 
provide a place of their own. On the loth of the fol- 
lowing December, Sir Edmund Andros, the " captain- 
general and governor," arrived. On the 20th he called 
the ministers together, and talked with ttiem about 
having the use of one of their meeting-houses, and so ar- 
ranging the hours of worship, that two assemblies might 
be accommodated the same day. These ministers, and 
four members of each church, met in consultation the 
next day, and agreed to answer the governor, w that they 
could not with a good conscience consent that our 
meeting-houses should be made use of for the common- 
prayer worship." Whereupon the governor sends Ran- 
dolph for the keys of the Old South church, " that they 
may say prayers there." This brings to his excellency's 
door six of the principal members, including Judge 
Sewall, whose journal furnishes these facts in the mi- 
nutest detail. They " show that the land and house is 
ours, and that we can't consent to part with it to such 
use ; exhibit an extract of Mrs. Norton's deed, and how 
'twas built by particular persons, as Hall, Oliver, X100 
apiece," etc. This interview occurred on the 23d of 
March, 1687. On the 25th, the governor sent orders to 
the sexton to open the house and ring the bell. The 
sexton, " though resolved to the contrary," was fright- 
ened into compliance by the threat, that if he refused, 
the house should never be opened again, and that he 
(the governor) would " punish any man who gave two 
pence towards the support of a Non-conformist minis- 
ter." (Hutch. Hist. Vol. I. 356.) 

Thus Good- Friday was canonically kept for the first 



100 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

time in Massachusetts, sixty-seven years and three 
months after the landing at Plymouth ; and on the 
following Sabbath, the governor and his retinue cele- 
brated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the same 
place, having previously notified Mr. Willard, the pas- 
tor, that he could have the house at haif-past one, — 
which, however, was not vacated till after two, so that, 
in the words of Sewall, "'twas a sad sight to see how 
full the street was with people gazing and moving to 
and fro, bee. had not entrance into ye house." From 
this date, the governor, whenever it suited his conven- 
ience to go to church, or say his prayers with his hand- 
ful of adherents, took possession of the Old South till 
he was driven from the country in 1689 ; for the first 
Episcopal church in Boston was not finished till about 
that time.* 

These arbitrary proceedings in religious matters give 
but a faint idea of the rough-shod tyranny that bore 
rule in civil affairs. The powers which the new gov- 
ernor and his council might exercise under the royal 
commission were almost unlimited; and there appeared 
no disinclination to exercise them to the fullest extent. 
This called forth resistance, as it always will, among 
the enlightened friends of freedom; and, true to their 
high vocation and Puritan training, the ministers were 
on the lead. While the controversy respecting the oc- 
cupancy of the Old South church was at its height, the 



* The troubles and petty vexations to which the Old South con- 
gregation were exposed during all this time are touchingly told in 
Judge Sewall's Journal, — himself one of the principal members of 
the church, being often doomed to bear, personally, the insolence of 
Randolph and the browbeating of Andros. But the old Puritan 
seems to have kept cool and firm, — unprovoked by the one and 
undismayed by the other. When Andros, on one occasion waxed 
warm, and used threatening language while speaking of the back- 
wardness of Boston people to aid in building an Episcopal church, 
Sewall's bold and apt reply, as entered in his journal, was, — " Said, 
came from England to avoid such and such things, therefore could 
not give to set y up here : and y e bishops would have thought 
strange to have been ask'd to contribute towards sitting up y e New 
England churches." 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 101 

venerable pastor stimulated his flock in their resistance 
to the arbitrary demands of Andros, by a sermon from 
the text, " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood." The 
ministers had unanimously withstood the proposal of 
the governor and a portion of the assistants to sur- 
render the charter, when Randolph had prevailed on 
the king to issue a writ of quo warranto against it. At 
a town meeting held in Boston to consider the subject, 
Increase Mather, the president of the college, and a fair 
exponent of the clergy throughout the colony, opposed 
the motion in the following earnest and eloquent 
speech : " I verily believe we shall sin against the 
God of heaven, if we vote an affirmative to it. The 
Scripture teacheth us otherwise. That which the Lord 
our God hath given us, shall we not possess it? God 
forbid that we should give away the inheritance of our 
fathers. Nor would it be wisdom to comply. If we 
make a full and entire resignation to pleasure, we fall 
into the hands of men immediately ; but if we do not, 
we still keep ourselves in the hands of God; and who 
knows what God may do for us ? The loyal citizens 
of London would not surrender their charter, lest their 
posterity should curse them for it. And shall we, then, 
do such a thing ? I hope there is not one freeman in 
Boston that can be guilty of it." The audience were 
moved to tears, and when the question was put to vote, 
it was unanimously rejected. " It is better," they ex- 
claimed, " if we must die, to die by the hands of others 
than our own." (Robbins' Hist. Sec. Ch. 49.) 

Could the mendacious Randolph, or his despotic cap- 
tain-general, or their infatuated king, for a moment im- 
agine, that the people who hung on the lips of such 
preachers two full hours every Sabbath, besides being 
catechized by them through all the days of their child- 
hood, would yield obedience to the haughty mandates 
of tyranny, without resistance ? The town meeting was 
the ordinary place of testing the minister's political in- 
fluence over the people ; and the arbitrary tax of Id. on 
XI, levied by Andros to support his odious adminis- 
tration, afforded a frequent occasion for its develop- 



102 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

ment. Not a few towns were fined for non-payment ; 
and town officers imprisoned for contumacy or remon- 
strance ; and in most cases the trouble could be traced 
up to the inextirpable spirit of independence in the min- 
ister. One instance is here given as an illustration. 
Rev. John Wise, minister of Chebacco (then a part of 
Ipswich, now Essex), believing that the liberties of his 
country were in danger, went with two of his parish- 
ioners to the centre village to see what could be done. 
A small meeting for consultation was held, preliminary 
to the general meeting of the town, duly warned for the 
next day. The patriotic feelings of Mr. Wise found 
utterance and sympathy in both meetings ; and the de- 
cision of the town was, not to aid in assessing or col- 
lecting this illegal tax. News of all this coming to the 
governor's ears, Mr. Wise and five others were arrested, 
committed to jail, tried, found guilty of contempt and 
high misdemeanor, and kept imprisoned twenty-one 
days longer before sentence was passed, — which sen- 
tence, in his case, was, "fine <£50, pay cost, X1,000 
bond, and to be suspended from the ministerial func- 
tion." (Dr. Crowell's Hist. 149.) In giving his own 
account of the matter, Mr. Wise, in characteristic style, 
says: " The evidence in the case was, as to the substance 
of it, that we too boldly endeavored to persuade our- 
selves we were Englishmen, and under privileges, and 
that we were, all six of us aforesaid, at the town meet- 
ing of Ipswich aforesaid, and, as the witness supposed, 
we assented to the aforesaid vote ; and also that John 
Wise made a speech at the same time, and said that 
we had a good God and a good king, and should do 
well to stand to our privileges." 

On the expulsion of Andros, and before the provin- 
cial charter was granted, Mr. Wise, with one of his 
fellow-convicts, was chosen by the town of Ipswich to 
meet in Boston the representatives of the other towns 
to consult for the public safety. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 103 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1690-1700. 

Eleven churches gathered. — Salem witchcraft. — Change in conducting ec- 
clesiastical affairs. — Comparative strength of the different denominations in 
Massachusetts, — in New England. — Influence of Calvinism and Puritan 
Congregationalism on the New England character. — Kemarks on Oliver's 
" Puritan Commonwealth." 

Eleven Congregational churches were organized 
within the present bounds of Massachusetts during the 
ten years from 1690 to 1700, and in the following order. 

The church in Wrentham, the second that came out 
from the Dedham church, was embodied April 13, 1692, 
with Rev. Samuel Mann for their pastor. His ministry 
commenced there with the first settlement of the place, 
twenty years before ; but the desolations that swept 
over it in Philip's war, driving away both minister and 
people, prevented an earlier organization. 

On the 26th of December, 1694, several members of 
the Plymouth church, with some from other parts, were 
constituted the First church in Middleboro', having al- 
ready sustained public worship among themselves ten 
or twelve years, under the lead of Deacon Samuel Ful- 
ler, who was invested with the pastoral office by the 
same council that organized the church. 

A similar process had been in operation for a shorter 
time in Plympton (then a part of Plymouth), under the 
direction of Mr. Isaac Cushman, a ruling elder, when, 
in 1695, they too were separated from the mother 
church, and elder Cushman ordained their first pastor. 

The church in Lexington was gathered from the 
Cambridge church, October 21, 1696, and Rev. Benjamin. 
Estabrooks, having previously labored with them in the 



/ 



104 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Gospel about four years, was inducted into the pastoral 
office on the same day. 

The church in Waltham separated from" that in 
Watertown, October 6, 1697, unless we consider it the 
original, from which the other went off; for at the time 
of separation, which was occasioned by removing the 
place of worship, it was the majority of the Watertown 
church, including " the selectmen of the town," who re- 
moved to the new meeting-house, located within the 
present limits of Waltham, and there settled Rev. 
Samuel Angier for their pastor; while the minority, 
still meeting in the old place of worship, were reorgan- 
ized by an ecclesiastical council on the day above 
named, and settled Rev. Henry Gibbs over them. 

The First church in West Springfield was separated 
from the old Springfield church in June, 1698. For the 
space of forty years they had crossed the Connecticut 
river in boats to attend public worship. On one occa- 
sion three persons were drowned while returning from 
church. Their first pastor was Rev. John Woodbridge, 
who was ordained at the time the church was organ- 
ized. 

The First church in West Newbury, originally the 
second in Newbury, was gathered October 26, 1698, and 
Rev. Samuel Belcher was ordained over it on the 10th 
of November following. 

The Fourth Congregational church in Boston was 
formed December 12, 1698, by the confederation of 
thirteen out of the " Twenty Associates," who had just 
erected a new meeting-house on Brattle square, — not 
entirely to the liking of the other societies. From a 
" Manifesto," put forth by these associates, " for pre- 
venting all misapprehensions and jealousies," the enter- 
prise was at first nicknamed the " Manifesto church," 
and was not in fellowship with the others till after the 
settlement of Rev. Benjamin Coleman, August 4, 1699, 
who was called there while pursuing his studies in Lon- 
don, where he also took ordination, by advice of the 
Brattle Street church, lest the Boston ministers should 
refuse it. Confidence, however, was soon restored ; for 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 105 

in doctrine the new church and their young minister 
were on the old foundation of the Westminster confes- 
sion, — differing from the other churches and ministers 
only on some minor points of social organism and pub- 
lic worship. (Snow's Hist. Boston, 203.) 

Some time during the same year (1699) the church 
in Stowe was gathered, and Rev. John Eveleth was 
ordained as their first pastor. Rev. William Woodrop 
had preached there several years before, and was pre- 
vented from settlement only by a recall to his native 
Scotland, after being invited to the pastoral office in 
Stowe. 

The church in Brewster, an offshoot from the East- 
ham church, was organized October 16, 1700, with Rev. 
Nathaniel Stone for their first pastor. 

Probably the First church in New Bedford was gath- 
ered at the head of Accushnet river, during the same 
year, 1700. In 1696, Dr. Mather puts down "Dart- 
mouth," then including New Bedford, Fairhaven, and 
Westport, as "perishing without vision," that is, desti- 
tute of preaching; while it is known that Rev. Samuel 
Hunt was preaching there in 1700 to a church whose 
organization can be assigned to no subsequent date. 
The early spread of Quakerism into those parts retard- 
ed the progress of Congregational church extension 
throughout that section of the State, leaving a blight 
upon Puritan institutions which is still discernible. 

As we are now passing over the period marked by 
that frightful delusion, the " Salem witchcraft," a brief 
notice of it may properly be inserted in this sketch, 
though its tragical history pertains rather to the civil 
courts. A belief in the existence of familiar spirits is 
as old as the Bible, and, at the time of this Salem affair, 
was held in some form or other by every known tribe 
and nation on earth. From the most ignorant peasant 
then living in England to her most learned judge, the 
idea prevailed that witches might get possession of de- 
praved men, — but more especially of women, — and, 
through their connivance, play all manner of strange 
pranks with tables, chairs, tongs, etc., and even inflict 



106 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

torture on innocent victims. With the exception of this 
last-named circumstance (if, indeed, it be an exception), 
the same notion still has credence in certain quarters. 
But these odd manifestations were then universally as- 
scribed to the devil; and the human "medium" was 
supposed to be in his confidence. As such, he was ar- 
rested, tried, sentenced, and executed, unless evidence 
could be had that the satanic partnership was dissolved. 
Several such executions had occurred in different parts 
of New England since its first settlement, and a much 
larger number in Old England. And there can be no 
reasonable doubt that the witch stories and witch trials 
printed in England, and circulated here just before the 
terrible scene enacted at Salem, was the proximate 
cause of its enactment. 

It commenced in the family of Rev. Samuel Parris, 
minister of " Salem Village " (now North Dan vers), 
whose young daughter and niece, ten or eleven years 
old, being afflicted with a malady which baffled the 
doctor's skill, he pronounced them bewitched. Other 
children in the neighborhood soon caught the distemper. 
An Indian servant living in the minister's family, 
moved, apparently, by compassion for the sufferers, un- 
dertook to find out the witch by certain " wild incanta- 
tions," which she affirmed had often been successfully 
tried among her people. These were so odd and hea- 
thenish withal, that they drew down upon herself the 
charge of witchcraft. With a view, probably, to escape 
the threatened penalty, she at length confessed to the 
charge, and implicated two other old women as her con- 
federates ; and they were all committed to prison. This 
occurred in March, 1692 ; and so rapidly did the epidemic 
spread, that before the end of November following, 
more than two hundred had been charged with witch- 
craft, of whom one hundred and fifty were committed 
to prison, and twenty suffered death! 

By this time the panic had reached its height, and 
an explosion was inevitable. The absurd custom of al- 
lowing persons under the supposed influence of witch- 
craft to give testimony against witches (a custom 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 107 

copied directly from the English courts) was fast 
bringing nnder suspicion the most pious and upright 
people among them, and threatening to involve all 
classes in mutual destruction. Even Cotton Mather, 
whose relish for the supernatural had led him further 
into the delusion than most of his brethren, frankly con- 
fessed that " the whole business is become so snarled 
that our honorable judges have room for Jehoshaphat's 
exclamation, l We know not what to do.' The devil 
improves the darkness of this affair to push us into a 
blind man's buffet ; and we are ready to be sinfully, yea, 
hotly and madly, mauling one another in the dark." 
The recoil in public sentiment was sudden and almost 
universal. Prisoners were discharged, presentments dis- 
missed, and convicts reprieved. Such a gaol-delivery 
was made as was never before known in New England. 
(Hutch. Vol. II. 61.) 

It has been the fashion, both in England and this 
country, either to reproach our fathers for extraordinary 
superstition in this witchcraft business, or else to turn 
it into fun. But in regard to the first, it is sufficient to 
say, on the authority of Hutchinson (Vol. II. 22), that 
u more witches have been put to death in a single coun- 
ty in England, in a short space of time, than have suf- 
fered in all New England from the first settlement until 
the present time." And five years after the last vestige 
of a witch was seen in Salem, seven were executed in 
Scotland, upon the testimony of one girl about eleven 
years old. As to the merriment which weak minds can 
make out of it in our day, it was the most serious of 
all things at the time, and shrouded the land in deeper 
gloom than the war of Philip or the tyranny of Andros. 
It should be classed among the calamitous events which 
New England has survived, and by which her recuper- 
ative power has been shown. If there is any thing 
really ridiculous in these " spiritual manifestations " of 
the seventeenth century, the laugh should be turned on 
those who, in the middle of this " glorious nineteenth," 
are compassing sea and land to revive the same phan- 
toms. It is not because superstition is less prevalent, 



108 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

but because it is more venial, that the interest excited 
in the public mind by the feats of our " mediums " is 
not spiced with the tragic as well as the marvellous. 

As to the overturns in the civil government during this 
period, they had less effect on the polity and position of 
the churches than one would have supposed. Three 
quarters of a century had^ given to the religious and 
ecclesiastical foundations a solidity which could not be 
unsettled by a change of charters. Even the usurpa- 
tions of Randolph and Andros only forced Episcopacy 
in, without being able to force Congregationalism out, 
or to cripple its power. Certainly the relation of the 
church to the State, whatever else we may call it, was 
not a union. Had the state gone to pieces, the church 
would have remained on the same foundation that # she 
occupied before she built up a state around her. It is 
nevertheless true, that under the provincial charter eccle- 
siastical affairs were conducted in a somewhat different, 
and on the whole, in a decidedly better, manner than 
under the colonial charter. The temptation to join the 
church for worldly advantage was greatly diminished 
by extending the right of voting to all persons alike, of 
a certain estate, whether members of a church or not. 
And by cutting off appeals to the general court in all 
matters strictly ecclesiastical, the churches were restored 
to their original independence, which had been partially 
taken away. It is true there were many ways in which 
the governor, now appointed by the king, and answer- 
able to him alone, might vex the churches, were he dis- 
posed to do it ; but so deeply rooted was the tree of 
Puritan Congregationalism in the soil of New England, 
— all the more so from the storms it had withstood, — 
and so acceptable, on the whole, was its fruit and shade 
to the mass of the population, that no governor, what- 
ever his private preferences might be, was disposed to 
risk his popularity by attempting to check its growth or 
to lop off its branches. 

Looking back from the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, over the eighty years whose history has now been 
sketched, we find that just seventy-nine Congregational 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 109 

churches had been gathered within the bounds of this 
State, — two of which had removed in a body to Con- 
necticut, — leaving seventy -seven as the number on the 
ground. There were also between thirty and forty as- 
semblies of praying Indians, out of which eight churches 
had been gathered, — all of them cast in the Congrega- 
tional mould : all of them the fruits of Congregational 
missions. Of other denominations there were two 
Baptist churches and one Episcopalian. Moreover, the 
Quakers had erected a small house of worship in Bos- 
ton, and were beginning to hold stated meetings ; the 
only Quaker meeting-house then in the State. In 
Mather's Magnalia (Vol. I. B. I. chap. 7), notice is also 
taken of " a French congregation of Protestant refugees 
under the pastoral care of Monsieur Daille," located in 
Boston ; but there is no proof that they ever had an ec- 
clesiastical organization ; and the presumption is that 
they were soon absorbed in other religious societies. 
At the same date there were thirty-five churches in Con- 
necticut, six in New Hampshire, and two in Maine ; all 
of them Congregational. In Rhode Island there were 
two or three Baptist churches, while nearly half the pop 
ulation, without any very definite organizations, were 
divided among Quakers, Seekers, Gortonites, Roger- 
ines, etc. 

The relative position of the different religious de- 
nominations in New England during this formative 
period of her history is suggestive of reflections which 
need not be put into words. Every thoughtful reader 
will perceive that the bones and sinews of New Eng- 
land character — her social habits and political tenden- 
cies, no less than her religious type — were all derived 
from Puritanism ; from that form of Puritanism which 
accepted the theology of John Calvin, and the church 
polity of John Robinson, with only such modifications 
of each as are found in the Westminster confession 
and the Cambridge platform. And it may here be 
added, that each of the great principles which lay at the 
foundation of the social, religious, or political character 
of our New England fathers was subjected to a most 



110 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

thorough discussion among themselves, — magistrates, 
ministers, and people, — so that whatever ideas and 
usages got the ascendency and came into vogue, rested 
on an intelligent personal conviction, and not on a tra- 
ditional authority ; a conviction that would have made 
them martyrs, but that it had previously made them 
exiles. 

In taking leave of the colonial period, or what has 
been aptly called the " Puritan Commonwealth," which 
terminated in 1692, a passing notice seems due to a 
book bearing that title, written by the late Peter Oliver, 
of the " Suffolk bar," and published since this sketch 
was commenced, — a posthumous publication of con- 
siderable talent, but breathing a spirit of malevolence 
towards Puritanism and its products, that has hardly 
been equalled since the days of " Carrion " Heath, and 
Mark Noble. Complaining, that all previous writers 
have falsified the truth of our history by suppressing 
one half of it, he falls into the same error by giving us 
only the other half, and that too after wrenching it out 
of its connections, oftentimes, and twisting it into every 
possible distortion. Professing to draw from original 
sources, he revamps the old slanders of Robert Baylie, 
without any notice, and seemingly without any knowl- 
edge of their utter refutation at the time by John 
Cotton ; and quotes Letchford to prove the existence of 
wrongs which even that complainer never suffered nor 
saw nor suspected. With what success he pursued his 
historical researches, and with how much safety he may 
be taken as a guide to ours, is sufficiently apparent from 
the following conclusions to which he comes, — taken 
almost at random from the first two chapters : " The 
spirit of Puritanism was hostile to the principles of 
liberty on the shores of Massachusetts Bay." " The 
elders and magistrates were alike the enemies of popu- 
lar freedom." " The trial by jury was reluctantly 
adopted as a fundamental principle in the new system 
of laws." At the end of a long chain of evidences, 
deemed by him conclusive, that the original government 
was founded in fraud, and perpetuated " by the use of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. Ill 

the ingeniously contrived [church] covenant." he coolly 
asserts, that, " strictly speaking, the legislation of the 
commonwealth was treasonable, and every capital pun- 
ishment inflicted under its laws was murder." With 
these views of the civil state of Massachusetts during 
that period, we are not surprised that the author should 
find all manner of hypocrisy, impiety, and immorality 
in her religious condition, till Episcopacy came to her 
rescue, — Puritanism having made a complete failure. 
Of course, nobody at this day will think of setting 
himself seriously to refute such stale calumnies. The 
time was, when, in the freshness and personality of 
such assaults upon the struggling founders of New 
England, a refutation w r as needed ; and had it not been 
triumphantly made by themselves, both they and their 
Puritan commonwealth would have been crushed. 

The book will be useful chiefly as exhibiting, in a 
gorgeous tableau, the old battle ground on which the 
Puritans fought their way to fame. Every one knows 
the result of the battle, but not every one knows the 
falsehood and effrontery that had to be faced down in 
achieving it. 



112 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER IX. 

1700-1710. 

Eight churches gathered. — Reasons for so few. — Second type of Home Mis- 
sions. — Sixteen "Proposals" of Boston ministers. — John Wise assails 
them. — " Churches' Quarrel espoused," and " Vindication of the Govern- 
ment of New England Churches." — Magical effect of these productions. — 
Solomon Stoddard. — Evil effect of his well-meant innovation. 

At the opening of the eighteenth century, the spirit 
of Christian enterprise, so far as indicated by the pro- 
gress of church extension, was in a torpid state ; only 
eight Congregational churches were planted during the 
first ten years, namely : — 

The church in Framingham, gathered chiefly from the 
Sherborn church, was constituted on the 8th of October, 
1701, with Rev. John Swift for their pastor. 

The First church in Boxford colonized from the Row- 
ley church in 1702, — probably on the 30th of December, 
as Rev. Thomas Symmes, their first pastor, was ordained 
on that day. 

On the 13th of October, 1703, the First church in 
Rochester was gathered, near " Scipican harbor " (now 
Marion), under the labors of Rev. Samuel Arnold, who, 
with a company of emigrants from Marshfield, Scituate, 
and Sandwich, had commenced a settlement there in 
1683. 

The Byfield church was organized as the third in 
Newbury, November 17th, 1706, and Rev. Moses Hale 
was ordained over it the same day. 

The present First church in Braintree was gathered on 
the 10th of September, 1707, with Rev. Hugh Adams 
for their pastor. It was a colony from the Quincy 
church, which was then numbered as the first in Brain- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 113 

tree, being included within the original limits of that 
town, and known as the " North precinct." 

On the 10th of October, 1708, twenty members were 
dismissed from the Barnstable church for the purpose 
of a separate organization in Falmouth, which was 
effected soon after, with Rev. Samuel Shiverick for their 
minister. He had already been preaching there several 
years, in a meeting-house built, in part, by a grant from 
the general court of Plymouth. 

The church in Weston was separated from the orig- 
inal Watertown church, November 2d, 1709, having had 
a meeting-house and a minister for the space of ten 
years previously. Rev. William Williams was ordained 
their first pastor when the church was organized. 

The First church in Dighton, originally the " South 
precinct" in Taunton, w T as probably gathered in 1710, 
with Rev. Nathaniel Fisher for their pastor; but the 
records which should inform us are lost. 

The fact that only these eight churches were planted 
in Massachusetts during this period, is owing, in part, 
no doubt, to the French and Indian war then in pro- 
gress. The outer settlements had become a theatre of 
border conflict, unfavorable for church extension. Even 
churches already gathered were so reduced by rapine 
and murder, as to need the help of others in sustaining 
them. The church of Deerfield presents a mournful ex- 
ample. On the morning of February 29th, 1704, the 
ground being covered with snow four feet deep, the 
town was attacked by two hundred French and 142 
Indians from Canada. Before the sun was an hour 
high, forty-seven of the inhabitants were slaughtered, 
112 taken prisoners, and nearly every house was in 
flames. Among the captives was the minister, Rev. 
Mr. Williams, with his wife and five children. The 
cruelties suffered on a march of three hundred miles, and 
during a two years' residence with the savages, is touch- 
ingly told in " The Redeemed Captive Returning to 
Zion," which Mr. Williams published after his release. 
The remnant of his flock, diminished but not discour- 
aged, rallied, and recalled him to settle with them again, 

8 



114 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

which he readily did, though the war continued to rage ; 
and the legislature made a grant of £20 for their en- 
couragement in his support for the first year. 

And this brings to view a new phase of church ex- 
tension, deserving of a moment's notice. It may prop- 
erly be denoted the second form which home missions 
took in Massachusetts — the first being the plan of sus- 
taining "branch" churches, already described. The 
assistance rendered to the inhabitants of Deerfield, in 
reestablishing the gospel among them, was not a soli- 
tary instance of the kind. In the archives of this State, 
are now to be found not less than fifty formal appli- 
cations from feeble parishes, presented to the legislature 
between the years 1693 and 1711, and the record of 
as many appropriations from the public treasury — 
amounting in all to about £1,000 — for their relief.* 



* * The reader may be interested in seeing a specimen. 

" The Petition of the inhabitants of Broolfeld, to the Honorable Gen- 
eral Court assembled at Boston, Nov., 1698, humbly sheweth: 

" 1. That we seem to be called of God to continue our habitation 
in this place, [notwithstanding the disastrous beginnings, which the 
petitioners here recount]. 

" 2. That it is an intolerable burden to continue as we have done, 
without the preaching of the word ; God doth require his people to 
attend not only family worship, but his public worship : it is the ordi- 
nance of God, that on the Sabbath day there should be an holy con- 
vocation, and that his word be preached by those that are able and 
faithful ; and our own necessities put us upon it earnestly to desire 
it ; both we and our children need the instructions, rebukes, and en- 
couragements of the word ; the darkness and deadness of our own 
hearts, together with the many snares that are in the world, are an 
experimental conviction to us, that we need all those helps and ad- 
vantages that God hath sanctified for our good. 

" 3. That we are not able at present to maintain the worship of 
God, — we are but twelve families, and are not of estate sufficient to 
give suitable encouragement to a minister. We are willing to do to 
the outside of our ability ; but though we do as much as can be ex- 
pected from us, it will not amount to such a sum as a minister may 
reasonably require for his labor. 

" 4. That if this honorable court would please to pity us, and grant 
us some help for a few years for the maintenance of a godly, able 
minister, besides the advantage that it may be to those few families 
that are here, it would be a means to draw many other inhabitants to 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 115 

These cases of necessity were usually, but not uni 
versally, the result of Indian depredations; and this 
prompt way of meeting them by legislative grants, 
though open to many objections, shows how appalling 
to the guardians of the commonwealth, at that time, 
were such moral destitutions as now engage the friends 
of home missions. 

The period now under review is memorable for an at- 
tempt made by certain ministers " in and about Boston," 
to unsettle the platform of these Congregational churches; 
and no less so for its utter defeat by the Rev. John Wise 
of Ipswich — now Essex — in a pamphlet of eighty-six 
pages, entitled the " Churches' Quarrel Espoused." 

The facts, in brief, are these. At a meeting of the 
Boston Association, held November 5th, 1705, sixteen 
" Proposals" were drawn up and put forth, for the con- 
sideration of " the several associated ministers in the 
several parts of the country." These, though couched 
in plausible terms, and embodying some useful hints, 
were nevertheless repugnant, in their general spirit, to 
the Cambridge platform and the popular usage ; or, as 
Mr. Wise describes them, "they seem a conjunction of 
all the church-governments in the world, and the least 



us, whereby we shall be so far assisted, that we may of ourselves 
be able to uphold the worship of God, and not be burdensome to 
others. 

" Under these considerations, we humbly beg that this honorable 
court would exercise compassion to us, and assign some relief to us 
out of the public treasury, which we shall look upon, not only a 
testimony of your zeal for the worship of God, but also of your 
tender compassion to the souls of those whom God hath made you 
fathers of. And your petitioners shall ever pray," etc. [Signed by 
fifteen names.] 

" Read November 23, 1698. 

" In answer to the above petition, Ordered, that there be twenty 
pounds paid out of the public treasury of this province towards the 
support of an Orthodox minister for one year, to commence from the 
time of the settlement of such minister amongst them. 

" Sent up to the honorable the lieutenant-governor and council 
for concurrence. Nathaniel JByfield, Speaker. 

" Read in council, November 24, 1698, and Voted a concurrence 
with the representatives. Isa. Addington, Secretary"' 



116 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

part is Congregational," — "the spectre, or ghost of 
Presbyterianism," — "something considerable of pre- 
lacy,'' — "something which smells very strong of the 
infallible chair." The Congregation alists of our day, 
grown familiar with modern innovations, will fail to 
detect in these proposals all the ugly features here 
portrayed, unless they follow the author through his 
illustrations, and learn to look at things in embrio et in 
rerum natura, to cite one of his classical allusions. The 
leading ideas contained in them may be reduced to these 
three : first, to give the ministerial meetings, which were 
then coming into vogue, an ecclesiastical character, by 
the introduction of business pertinent only to the 
churches. Second, to combine these associations of 
ministers, thus ecclesiasticized and enlarged by a lay 
delegation into standing councils, whose decisions in 
all ordinary cases should be " final and decisive." 
Third, to allow " no particular pastor or congregation 
to employ any one in occasional preachings who has 
not been recommended by a testimonial under the hands 
of some association." 

On this last point, it may be proper here to remark 
for the information of those not familiar with " the old 
ways," that hitherto a "license" or "approbation" to 
preach was only "the express or implied authority 
granted by a church to preach tb them" (Cong. Diet. 
214.) The Congregational churches had acknowledged 
no human authority, either ministerial, prelatic, or civil, 
as a prerequisite to the employment of any one whom 
they chose to select. They would submit to none ; 
though they thankfully availed themselves of every 
help, especially that of settled ministers, in finding suit- 
able candidates. 

The Cambridge Platform is silent on this subject; 
but John Cotton, in his " Way of the Churches " (p. 
39, 40), indirectly tells us how ministers got licensed, by 
showing " in what manner they were chosen." " When 
any of the churches are destitute of any of these 
officers, the brethren of the church (according to the 
apostle's advice, in defect of deacons, and so in defect 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 117 

of all other officers), they look out from amongst them- 
selves, such persons as are in some measure qualified 
according to the direction of the word. If the church 
can find out none such in their own body, they send to 
any other church for fit supply, and each church looketh 
at it as their duty to be mutually helpful one to another, 
in yielding what supply they may, without too much 
prejudice to themselves. Such being recommended to 
them for such a work, they take some time of trial of 
them, partly by their own observation and communion 
with them, partly by consultation with the elders of 
other churches continuing there." 

In theory, therefore, a Congregational church, desti- 
tute of a pastor, looked over their own list of members 
for a suitable candidate. If they could find one of 
sufficient promise, they placed him in the pulpit and 
heard him preach, and applied such other tests as they 
deemed necessary to a satisfactory judgment of his 
qualifications. Their own " approbation " was all the 
testimonial he got or wanted. If they found no suit- 
able person for that office among themselves, they looked 
into other churches, consulted the ministers of those 
churches, consulted the laymen, conversed with the can- 
didate recommended, took him into the pulpit, took 
him to their houses, — used all appropriate means, — 
and then " lisenced " him, if he stood the test, and 
settled him if he and they could agree. 

The general court undertook to interfere with this 
right in 1652, by ordering that a license should be 
obtained from a council or county court ; but so deter- 
mined was the resistance, that the order was revoked 
the following year. " If a church has liberty of elec- 
tion and ordination," said the Woburn church in their 
petition on the subject, " then it has the power of ap- 
probation." (3 M. H. Coll. Vol. I. 42.) Nearly fifty 
years later, namely, in 1699, Increase Mather, with nine 
other ministers, signed and sent forth their " Advice 
unto the churches of New England," the drift of which 
was " to beware of running after new preachers, of 
whose endowments and principles they have not had a 



118 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

reasonable attestation," — expressing also their own 
intention thenceforth to admit into their pulpits "no 
stranger, coming as a preacher without sufficient assur- 
ances of his being what he pretends to be," except by 
first passing him through " a solemn examination of 
his capacity for the tremendous work of preaching the 
everlasting Gospel." But this put no restraints on the 
ancient liberties, or the existing usages, of the churches ; 
nor did it imply that their trial and approbation of a 
candidate would not be regarded by these ministers as 
a " sufficient assurance " of his " capacity " to preach. 
It was simple and seasonable advice, having reference 
particularly to illiterate pretenders coming from abroad; 
and it was backed up by considerations like the follow- 
ing : " If every piece of ignorance and arrogance be 
set up for a preacher, the name of the holy God will be 
profaned by an offering that is made a ridicule in the 
repetition." " If God should be provoked, by the un- 
thankfulness of men, to send the plague of an unlearned 
ministry upon poor New England, soon will the wild 
beast of the desert lie there, the houses will be full of 
doleful creatures, and owls will dwell therein." (Math. 
Mag. B. VII. ch. 5.) 

Thus the matter stood when these sixteen " Pro- 
posals " came out, and called forth in reply, that exco- 
riating satire from the pen of John Wise, " The 
Churches' Quarrel Espoused; " which had the effect, not 
only to explode the whole project, but to recall the 
churches to the first principles of Congregationalism, 
and to re-seat them on their ancient platform more 
firmly than ever, for the next sixty years. Even to this 
day it is common for ministerial bodies to insert in their 
constitutions, or rules of business, a disavowal of all 
" ecclesiastical authority," out of respect to an in- 
wrought jealousy among the churches, which had its 
origin in this affair. The sudden and complete triumph 
which this small book achieved is the more remarkable, 
when it is considered that the proposed innovations 
were supported by an array of names which were 
deemed a tower of strength to any cause which had 
their indorsement. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 119 

But it ought to be observed, in this connection, that 
the commanding and long-continued influence which 
Mr. Wise acquired over the public sentiment was not 
all due to this one effort. Encouraged by the success 
of his first blow in defence of invaded rights, he re- 
peated the stroke soon after, in his " Vindication of the 
Government of New England Churches," — a produc- 
tion as remarkable for terse logic as the other is for 
keen satire. It is unquestionably the clearest and most 
convincing demonstration of the Congregational polity 
ever put forth in the same number of pages. It would 
have left its mark on any age that could produce it. 
But in that age, and among a people whose suscepti- 
bilities of impression were quickened by late encroach- 
ments on popular freedom in the state, and still later, 
on the liberties of the churches, it was like setting a 
seal to melted wax. Especially forcible is his argument 
" drawn from the light of nature." Digging down to 
the bottom, and laying bare the foundation stones, he 
shows that all human government is, and must be, 
originally derived from the people. " For as they have 
a power, every man in a natural state, so upon a com- 
bination, they can, and do, bequeathe this power unto 
others, and settle it according as their united discretion 
shall determine," — which is seen in the obvious fact, 
"that when the subject of sovereign power is quite 
extinct, that power returns to the people again. Rang- 
ing all governments under three general heads — the 
monarchy, the oligarchy, the democracy — and sub- 
jecting them each to a scrutiny in the light of nature, 
he discovers that the last named is incomparably the 
best suited to the end for which human government is 
instituted; and looking at the Prelatic, the Presby- 
terian, and the Congregational, as the then correspond- 
ing forms of ecclesiastical rule, he finds the same grounds 
of preference for the latter. " To me it seems most 
apparent, that, under Christ, the reason of the Consti- 
tution of these and the primitive churches is really and 
truly owing to the original state and liberty of man- 
kind, and founded peculiarly in the light of nature," — 



120 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

which conclusion, being admitted, there is in it, he 
thinks, the force of a divine sanction. " It seems to me 
as though wise and provident nature, by the dictates of 
right reason, excited by the moving suggestions of 
humanity, and awed by the just demands of natural 
liberty, equality, and principles of self-preservation, 
originally drew up the scheme and then obtained the 
royal approbation." 

This argument for the democracy of Congregational 
churches from the light of nature, which at that time 
was truly, what he calls it, " an unbeaten path," was 
quite as available for a democracy in states, — an infer- 
ence which could not have escaped the thoughtful 
reader of that age, nor have failed to give the public 
mind a bias towards the political independence which 
was achieved in the age following. If Thomas Jeffer- 
son confessed himself indebted to the business meet- 
ings of a Baptist church in his neighborhood which he 
occasionally attended, for some of his best ideas of a 
democratic government, much more were John Adams 
and his New England compatriots beholden to their 
ecclesiastical surroundings for the republican tendencies 
of their politics. Indeed, some of the most glittering 
sentences in the immortal Declaration of American 
Independence are almost literal quotations from this 
essay of John Wise. And it is a significant fact, that 
in 1772, only four years before that declaration was 
made, a large edition of both these tracts was pub- 
lished by subscription in one duodecimo volume, — a 
copy of which, among the collections of the Congrega- 
tional Library Association, has supplied the foregoing 
extracts. The suspicion which this fact alone suggests, 
that it was used as a political text-book in the great 
struggle for freedom then opening in earnest, is fully 
confirmed by the list of subscribers' names printed at 
the end, with the number of copies annexed. Distin- 
guished laymen in all parts of New England, who 
were soon to be heralded to the world as heroes in that 
struggle, are on that list for six, twelve, twenty-four, 
thirty-six, and two of them for a hundred copies each ! 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 121 

Should the time ever come for the people of this re- 
public to renew that struggle, or the Congregational 
churches to reassert their ancient rights, another edition 
of this rare old book would be called for. 

It is much to be deplored that no champion was found 
during this period to lead these churches back to the 
" old paths " of piety, as well as of church polity. But 
Jonathan Edwards was then in his cradle, and his 
grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard of North- 
ampton, was inaugurating a measure which really, 
though not intentionally, was a movement in the oppo- 
site direction. A sermon published by him in 1707, 
maintains that " sanctification is not a necessary quali- 
fication to partaking of the Lord's supper," and that 
" the Lord's supper is a converting ordinance." To 
Orthodox Congregationalists in our day, such a doctrine 
sounds strange enough, from a minister of real as well 
as reputed orthodoxy on every other point, and it would 
seem to be the easiest thing in the world to crush out 
the heresy in its germ. But it had far-reaching roots. 
It grew from the " half-way covenant" of 1662. Daven- 
port, and others, had predicted such growths, as the 
natural product of such a scheme, when once admitted 
into the churches. But, like the warning of the ardent 
Laocoon against admitting the wooden horse into Troy, 
their predictions were unheeded till fatally fulfilled. A 
forty years' trial had shown that neither the children 
who were baptized on that covenant, nor their unregen- 
erate parents who offered them, were brought thereby 
any nearer to the kingdom of heaven, but on the con- 
trary, seemed the more content to remain in that half- 
way place. Consequently, while almost everybody was 
baptized, and, in that sense, became a visible saint, and 
member of the church, the number of real saints, or 
such as could come to the Lord's table on the old terms, 
was lamentably small, and was ever growing less. In this 
posture of affairs, why should not the same motives 
that had drawn the churches thus far from the primitive 
path, lead them this one step further? The idea of Mr. 
Stoddard was a startling, though not an inconsistent 



122 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

one. The ministers at first very generally opposed it. 
The aged Dr. Increase Mather, now forty years older, 
and considerably wiser, than when he was urging the 
churches to take the path which had brought them to 
this formidable brink, prepared an able reply, which 
was published in 1708. But it is easier to get poison 
into the system than to expel it. Mr. Stoddard's rejoin- 
der, in 1709, entitled " An Appeal to the Learned, be- 
ing a Vindication of the Rights of Visible Saints to the 
Lord's Supper, though they be destitute of a Saving 
Work of God's Spirit on their Hearts," together with his 
own personal influence, and a growing aptitude of the 
public mind in that direction, availed to get the prac- 
tice formally introduced at Northampton, from which it 
soon extended into other parts of New England, — 
working out, by degrees, into dead Orthodoxy, Armin- 
ianism, Pelagianism, and modern Unitarianism, as we 
shall have sad occasion to notice in the progress of this 
sketch. " One obvious tendency of this practice was, to 
destroy church-discipline; for unconverted members 
generally would not be strict in calling others to ac- 
count for errors of doctrine or practice." — Great Awak- 
ining, p. 5. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 123 



CHAPTER X. 



1710-1720. 

The gathering of thirty-eight churches. — Reasons for so many. — " Conven- 
tion of Congregational ministers," its origin and objects. — Contention in 
the New North church, Boston. — Great principles involved in the contro- 
versy. — The rights of Congregational churches maintained in the issue. — 
Views of Ware and Robbins. 

Thirty-eight Congregational churches were gathered 
in Massachusetts, from 1710 to 1720 ; and so common 
had the custom grown, of blending into one transaction 
the organization of a church and the settlement of 
a pastor over it, that when we have no record of the 
former, we may safely assume for its date the authentic 
record of the latter, — as has been done in several in- 
stances here following. It may also be assumed with 
equal certainty, that this first settled pastor had been 
previously employed for months or years in a laborious 
work, preliminary to that step. With this understand- 
ing, the details of church planting may be summarily 
given thus. 

In 1711, three churches were gathered, namely, on 
the 17th of October, the South church in Andover, with 
Rev. Samuel Phillips for their pastor; — on the 1st of 
November, the church in Truro, an offshoot from the 
old Eastham church, with Rev. John Avery for their 
pastor; — and, not far from the same time, the church 
in Nantucket, probably under the direction of the May- 
hews. It is known that a small colony from Salisbury, 
chiefly Baptists, with a few Quakers, had been there 
more than fifty years; but no church of any kind was 
formed on the island, except such as Governor May hew 



124 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

had gathered among the Indians, till a handful of emi- 
grants from the Vineyard were organized, as tradition 
says, about 1711.* 

In 1712, there were also three churches gathered; — • 
the West Roxbury church, November 2d, over which 
Rev. Ebenezer Thayer was ordained on the 26th of the 
same month; — the First church in Attleboro, (West 
Parish,) November 12th, with Rev. Matthew Short for 
their pastor; — and the Pembroke church, probably on 
the 3d of December following, when Rev. Daniel Lewis 
was ordained. 

In Medford, though favored with able but inconstant 
preaching for the space of eighty years by such men as 
James Noyes, Simon Bradstreet, Benjamin Woodbridge, 
and other noted divines, no regular church organization 
was effected till the settlement of Rev. Aaron Porter on 
the 11th of February, 1713 ; and on the 23d of Sep- 
tember the same year, the Second or South church in 
Danvers colonized from Salem, with Rev. Benjamin 
Prescott for their first pastor. 

During the year 1714 five churches were gathered, — 
the New North, in Boston, on the 5th of May, who set- 
tled Rev. John Webb on the 20th of x the following Oc- 
tober ; the church in Hamilton on the 12th of October, 
with Rev. Samuel Wigglesworth, whom they settled 
for their pastor on the 27th ; the church in Norton, a 
colony from Taunton, on the 28th, with Rev. Joseph 
Avery for their pastor ; the First church in Abington, 
probably on the 17th of November, when Rev. Samuel 
Brown is known to have been settled over them ; and 
probably the original church in Provincetown, though 
no surviving record fixes the exact date of the organi- 
zation or of the settlement of Rev. Samuel Spear, their 
first minister. This last-named church subsequently 
became so nearly extinct by the depopulation of the 



* The first meeting-house was erected this year, and the frame of 
it is known to have been hewed from the native forest of the island, 
where no trace of a tree is now to be found, except such as the hand 
of modern husbandry has planted. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 125 

place, that a reorganization was found necessary at the 
ordination of Rev. Samuel Parker, in 1774.* 

Four churches arose in 17 L5 ; the church in North 
Chelsea, then belonging to Boston and known as Rum- 
ney Marsh, October 19th, with Rev. Thomas Cheever, 
son of the renowned Boston schoolmaster, for their pas- 
tor; the East church in Medvvay, from the Medfield 
church, probably in November, when their first pastor, 
Rev. David Dunning, was ordained ; the second in Bev- 
erly (Upper Parish), December 28th, having Rev. John 
Chipman for their pastor ; and probably the church in 
Chilmark, as the ordination of Rev. William Homes, 
their first pastor, is known to have taken place this year. 
The Indians, and a small settlement of whites in the 
west part of the town, had been under the ministry of 
Rev. Ralph Thacher nearly thirty years earlier. 

The Second church in Marblehead was gathered 
April 25, 1716, and settled Rev. Edward Holyokej sub- 
sequently a president of Harvard College ; and the 
Second church in Gloucester (West Parish), was sepa- 
rated from the First, October 4, the same year, and Rev. 
Samuel Thompson, their first pastor, was ordained on 
the 28th of November following. 

In 17l7, five churches sprang into life; the church in 
Brookline, a colony from the First in Roxbury, on the 
6th of October, though Rev. James Allen, their first pas- 
tor, was not ordained till November 5th the next year ; 
the church in Longmeadow, originally the Second in 
Springfield, probably on the 17th of the same month, 
the day that their first pastor, Rev. Stephen Williams, 
was ordained ; the church in Canton, the then " South 
precinct" of Dorchester, with Rev. Joseph Morse for 



* Provincetown was incorporated in 1727, and for ten or twelve 
years was in a flourishing condition. "In 1748 it was reduced to 
two or three families." L)uring the first twelve years of Mr. Par- 
ker's ministry the general court granted £45 per annum towards his 
support, in consideration of the importance of the place to the inter- 
ests of navigation, and the difficulty of keeping it peopled ! It now 
has nearly 4,000 inhabitants, and four religious societies. 



126 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

. . their pastor, on the 30th; the church in West Brook- 
field, with Rev. Thomas Cheney for their pastor, on the 
17th, — nearly sixty years after the first settlement of 
the place;* and the church in Littleton, probably on 
'' / the 25th of December, when Rev. Benjamin Shattuck 
w T as ordained. A community of "praying Indians" 
occupied this spot prior to Philip's war, and had an In- 
dian preacher. 

In 1718, five more churches were added ; the church 
in Sunderland, a colony from Hadley, on the 1st of Jan- 
uary, with Rev. Josiah Willard for their pastor; the 
church in Bridgewater, from the West Bridgewater 
church, having Rev. Benjamin Allen for their pastor, 
July 9th ; the Second or East church in Salem, Novem- 
ber 14th, whose first pastor, Rev. Robert Stanton, was 
ordained on the 8th of April following; the Second 
church in Salisbury, November 19th, over which Rev. 
Joseph Parsons was installed the next week ; and prob- 
ably during the same year the church in Northfield, with 
Rev. Benjamin Doolittle for their pastor. The original 
members of this church came from Northampton, Had- 
ley, and Hatfield, as early as 1672, and erected a meet- 
ing-house and fort among the first houses built, on the 
plantation ; but Indian depredations, by which the first 
settlers suffered greatly, prevented the earlier organiza- 
tion of a church. 

The three following churches were gathered in 1719 : 
the New South in Boston (Summer street), numbered 
as the sixth, with Rev. Samuel Checkley for their pas- 
tor, on the 22d of November; the church in Orleans, 
who took with them Rev. Samuel Osborn, the pastor of 
the Eastham church, from which they came ; and the 
First or South church in Worcester, with Rev. Andrew 



* The township was granted to several inhabitants of Ipswich in 
1660, and a settlement begun forthwith, and preaching established; 
but before a church was organized the town was laid in ruins by 
King Philip's warriors, from which it was forty years in recovering 
the ability to reestablish Christian ordinances, — and then not with- 
out assistance from the legislature. See note, p. 114. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 127 

Gardner for their pastor, during the autumn of this year. 
This settlement was begun at a much earlier date, but 
was abandoned on account of Indian hostilities. 

In 1720, the following six churches arose : — the East 
church in Needham, on the 20th of March, whose first 
pastor, Rev. Jonathan Town send, was settled over them 
on the 23d of the same month ; the church in Chatham, 
probably on the 15th of June, when Rev. Joseph Lord 
was ordained ; the North church in Reading, June 29th, 
with Rev. Daniel Putnam for their pastor ; the church 
in Lynnfield, originally the second in Lynn, with Rev. 
Nathaniel Sparhawk for their, pastor, on the 17th of 
August; the church in Sutton, probably on the 9th of 
November, as their first pastor, Rev. John McKinstry, 
was ordained on that day ; and the church in Kingston, 
a colony from the old church in Plymouth, with Rev. 
Joseph Stacy for their pastor, at what precise time in 
the year is not known. 

This great accession to the number of Congregational 
churches in Massachusetts during these ten years was 
owing, not so much to any new impulse given to the 
current of Christian enterprise, as to the removal of ob- 
stacles which had obstructed its natural course. The 
peace of Utrecht, in 1713, terminated a ten years' war 
between England and France, which had been exceed- 
ingly destructive both of life and property to New Eng- 
land, but more especially to Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire, as being most exposed to hostile forays from 
the French colonies on the North and East. Indeed, the 
country had been in armsever since the opening of Philip's 
war, in 1675 ; and it is the opinion of Hutchinson (Vol. II. 
183), that " five or six thousand of the youth of the coun- 
try had perished by the enemy, or by distempers contract- 
ed in the service during that time ; " while " the various 
expensive expeditions actually prosecuted, and the prep- 
arations made for others, added to the constant defence 
of the extensive frontiers, and the support of civil gov- 
ernment without any relief or compensation from the 
crown, certainly must have occasioned such an annual 
burden as was not felt by any other subjects of Great 



128 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Britain." Computing the entire population of the prov- 
ince at eighty thousand, which is the estimate given in 
the Collections of the American Statistical Association 
(Vol. I. 142), and dividing it equally among these 124 
Congregational parishes that were taxing themselves to 
support a permanent ministry, it will give 645 souls, or 
about 130 families to each parish. Assigning two adults 
and three children to a family, which is the usual classi- 
fication, there could have been only about fifty adult 
persons connected with each parish, or twenty-five tax- 
able members. Considering the loss of men in the late 
military expeditions, the number of tax -payers was prob- 
ably less. These, with their wasted estates, constituted 
the reliable basis of ministerial support. Could so many 
" learned, orthodox ministers " have found an adequate 
support on such a basis anywhere else in the world at 
that time ? Would it be possible now to find it here, 
without large appropriations from the Massachusetts 
Home Missionary Society ? 

As the convention of Congregational ministers in Mas- 
sachusetts took an organic form about this time, and 
introduced the custom (now venerable for its age) of 
appointing one of their number annually to preach a 
" convention sermon," this seems to be the place to state 
whatever may be known of its origin and objects. 

We have already had occasion to notice the con- 
trolling influence which, in early times, the ministers of 
New England had, both in church and State. Though 
not a recognized branch of the legislature, like the 
" bench of bishops " in England, no law T ned bishops 
were ever more anxiously consulted by the civil powers. 
In every public emergence, and on all perplexing ques- 
tions in government and politics, their opinions were 
sought, and usually followed. In Massachusetts, for 
more than fifty years, John Cotton's "Judicials," and 
Nathaniel Ward's " Body of Liberties," constituted the 
only civil code. A class of citizens so necessary to the 
public weal were expected, as a matter of course, to be 
present at general elections, when governors and magis- 
trates were to be set over the people. Modern writers 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 129 

are not agreed as to the precise when or wherefore this 
political influence of the clergy was lost. Some of the 
more anti-Puritanic would have us believe that it was 
annihilated by the popular odium incurred in their per- 
secution of the Quakers and Baptists about the year 
1656 ; while yet these same, when they come to speak 
of the Salem witchcraft, thirty or forty years later, find 
enough of this clerical influence then and there, to admit 
of a second annihilation, which is accordingly dealt out, 
— just as some English historians represent the French 
as utterly crushed, over and over again, in the same war 
with England ; and yet when hostilities cease, and treaty 
stipulations are to be settled, the French always seem 
to have a considerable quantum of existence left. Others 
date the downfall of this clerical power in State affairs 
to the repeal of the first charter in 1692. But it is cer- 
tain that the general court found occasion to call on the 
ministers for something more than an election sermon, 
down to a later period than that. In Judge Sewall's 
journal, under date of " Friday, June 24, 1695," is the 
following entry: "The bill against incest was passed 
with the deputies, twenty-four noes and twenty-seven 
yeas. The ministers gave in their arguments yesterday, 
in writing, else it had hardly gone," etc. And we shall 
probably discover traces of the same political influence 
emanating from the Congregational ministers of New 
England as late as the Revolutionary war, if not later. 
But, however this may be, the old manuscript journal 
above cited (now in possession of Rev. Samuel Sewall, 
of Burlington) makes it certain that the period we have 
reached in this sketch was characterized by " a general 
appearance of all the ministers at Boston, at the time 
of the general court for elections of magistrates ; " that 
they usually dined together at one of the minister's 
houses, and not unfrequently had the governor, and 
some of the most distinguished of his council, to dine 
with them; but no arrangement appears to have been 
made for a convention sermon till 1720. On the 25th 
of May that year (election day), the ministers met at 
Judge Sewall's house ; and at an adjourned meeting the 

9 



130 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

next morning, " Voted, that a sermon should be preached 
annually to the ministers on the day following election. 
Dr. Increase Mather was chosen to that service the next 
year. The Rev. Solomon Stoddard was also chosen in 
case the doctor should fail ; and Dr. C. Mather to supply 
his place upon supposition that he should be prevented 
by the providence of God." The only other item of 
business noticed by this faithful chronicler, aside from 
devotional exercises, is entered thus : " It was proposed, 
and I think generally agreed, that days of fasting and 
prayer should be kept by our churches successively to 
ask the plentiful effusion of the Spirit on the rising gen- 
eration." The vote respecting the sermon was carried 
•into effect the next year. Dr. Increase Mather preached 
in a private dwelling-house, as did each of his. successors 
during the first eight years — for the reason, probably, that 
it was intended to be exclusively a " Concio ad Clerum" 
The first notice of any charitable collection as a part of 
the convention business is in 1731, and this was for 
missionary purposes, which appears to have been the • 
sole object of their charities for many years after. The 
annual collection for the widows and children of de- 
ceased ministers, and the incorporation of the Congre- 
gational Charitable Society for the safe-keeping and 
disbursement of the same, came in at a later date, and 
will be noticed in a subsequent part of this sketch. 

Thus it appears that the convention sermon, and the 
convention itself, grew up, like all other old Congrega- 
tional usages in New England, not from any precon- 
ceived purpose or decree of a few controlling minds, 
but from the seeds of Puritanism germinating and 
expanding into living forms by an innate force, and 
through a process as inevitable as it was spontaneous. 
It may also be added, that all the early convention ser- 
mons were eminently practical, and aimed solely at 
ministerial edification. The second one in the course 
was delivered by Cotton Mather (the substitute of Mr. 
Stoddard), May 31, 1722, in the parlor of Judge Bewail, 
a copy of which, " published at the request of them 
that heard it," has come down to us, showing marks of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 131 

narrow escape from the tooth of time. The text is 
Rom. 2: 19, "I know thy — service;" and the run- 
ning title is, " The services of an useful ministry." 
After expatiating upon all imaginable methods in which 
"a minister may be serviceable," — reading, studying, 
writing sermons, preaching them, administering to the 
poor, admonishing the rich, visiting the sick, catechiz^ 
ing the young, circulating good books, schooling hi§ 
own heart, and bearing patiently the buffeting of othersy 
— he touches upon " subjects to be handled " in preachr 
ing, and utters a special plea " on the behalf of some 
truths which all real and vital piety forever lives upon ; 
and which yet, alas," he adds, "are threatened with a 
sentence of banishment from the ministry, in some 
churches, which once they had been a beauty and a 
safety to." These "truths" are presented under eight 
specifications, which he calls, and which we still call, 
" The doctrines of grace." This marks the beginning 
of that eclipse which, though not total, yet greatly 
obscured the orthodoxy of the churches during the next 
twenty years. 

It was in the latter part of 1719, that a contention 
arose in the New North church, Boston, which, as it 
created an unhappy schism, and brought into debate 
a fundamental principle of Congregationalism, may be 
allowed a brief notice here. The facts, in a few words, 
are these. In settling an associate pastor with Rev* 
John Webb, it was voted in a regular church meeting, 
as a preliminary step, " 1. That the church shall go 
before and lead in the choice, according to the pro- 
fessed principles and practice of the churches in New 
England. 2. Since the edification of the brethren of 
the congregation is to be considered on such an occa- 
sion, we are willing they should join with us in the call 
of a minister; that is to say, after the church has ex- 
pressed their satisfaction with any particular person, we 
are willing that a major vote of the church and con- 
gregation assembled together, as is usual in country 
towns, shall determine whether the person, first chosen 
as aforesaid by the church, be finally settled in the pas- 



132 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

torial office over us. And we all of us promise to 
make ourselves easy, and sit down contented with such 
determination and purpose by the grace of God to do 
so, unless some weighty and conscientious reason oblige 
us to the contrary ; but upon this condition, that our 
brethren of the congregation are willing to act upon 
the same principles, and submit to the same rules." 
This was readily agreed to by the others ; and it was 
stipulated also, that all who attended Mr. Webb's meet- 
ing, and aided in his support, should be considered "the 
congregation," and have a right to vote. 

On the 9th of September the church met, and after a 
day spent in fasting and prayer, deposited their votes — 
thirty-four out of forty-four — for Rev. Peter Thacher, 
the popular and much esteemed pastor of the church in 
Weymouth. The next week, when the congregation 
met to cast their votes, six church-members and thirty- 
nine others of the congregation protested, and immedi- 
ately withdrew, taking their written protest with them. 
Forty-six persons remained, and all voted for Mr. 
Thacher. The day for installation was fixed, and a 
council called, embracing all the Boston ministers, and 
five from churches in the vicinity. A few days before the 
installation, " the aggrieved brethren," by advice from 
the Boston ministers, proposed that their differences be 
referred to a mutual council. The church declined the 
proposal on the twofold ground that it came too late, 
and in a wrong way. On the day set for the installa- 
tion services, none of the Boston ministers came, and 
only two from other places, with one delegate. The 
malcontents assembled at the same hour in a house 
which the council would have to pass in going the 
direct way to church, and sent a committee of their 
number to remonstrate against any further proceedings ; 
avowing it as their determination to prevent the settle- 
ment of Mr. Thacher, " peacably if they might, forcibly 
if they must." The council heard their remonstrance, 
but could not feel its force* To avoid all danger of a 
collision in the street, Mr. Webb led the members of 
the council through a back way to the church, where 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 133 

the installation services were performed, — not without 
riotous interruptions from the opposing party. 

This humiliating affair — long since forgotten — 
brought up in a practical form the old question about 
the rights of Congregational churches and the power of 
councils. The importance of the principle here involved 
is the only reason for stirring the dead cinders of this 
extinct volcano. Let us see how such a case looks in 
the light of that age. Of all the pamphlets and printed 
documents growing out of the controversy, only two 
small tracts remain. One is entitled, " A seasonable 
Testimony to good Order in the Churches of the Faith- 
ful. Particularly declaring the usefulness and necessity 
of Councils, in order to preserving Peace and Truth in 
the Churches. By Increase Mather, D. D., with the con- 
currence of other ministers of the Gospel in Boston;" 
and was printed by ' B. Green,' March 1, 1720." The 
other came forth the next day from the press of " J. 
Franklin" (set in type, it may be, by his brother "Ben," 
who was an apprentice boy in his office at that time) 
under the title of " A brief Declaration of Mr. Peter 
Thacher and Mr. John Webb, pastors of the New North 
church in Boston, in behalf of themselves and said 
church, relating to some of their late Ecclesiastical pro- 
ceedings." In these two antagonistic pamphlets (now 
lovingly stitched together into one, among the collec- 
tions of the Congregational Library Association) we 
probably have a fair exponent of the views held by 
both parties, — the one leaning toward the juridical 
power of councils, the other towards the independent 
rights of churches. The former maintains, that, " if any 
of our churches presume to transact their weighty 
affairs, and such as are of a common concern to the 
churches in their neighborhood" without the use of 
councils ; " or if they shall upon grievous differences 
among them refuse the advice of those who urge them 
to make use of this remedy ; and much more, if they 
shall proceed in matters after the l^eighboring churches 
have signified that they cannot countenance their pro- 
ceedings," they virtually "exclude themselves from 



134 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

communion with the faithful," and may be proceeded 
against, even to excision. The latter asserts that "it is 
an essential right belonging to particular churches to 
enjoy a free liberty, within themselves, duly and regu- 
larly to inquire " into their own affairs, " and to judge 
upon them as becometh creatures endued with reason 
and conscience, who are ever to be supposed more 
nearly concerned for their own spiritual interests, than 
others can be supposed to be for them." At any rate, 
that "they ought to have the privilege reserved unto 
them of regularly determining when and in what cases 
to call in the help of their brethren." 

The fact that the writers on both sides appeal to the 
Cambridge Platform, as they do with great earnestness, 
in support of their conflicting views, is evidence of at 
least an apparent discrepancy between its different parts, 
which we have before had occasion to notice. But the 
fact that the New North church was sustained in its 
proceedings by a strong public sentiment, under which 
the disaffected party w T ere constrained to withdraw and 
form a separate church (the New Brick), also shows 
that in those days the key-note of Congregationalism 

— its leading idea, to which all other ideas embraced in 
the system were to be held subordinate and subservient 

— was the right of a church to manage its own affairs ; 
that whatever power the Cambridge Platform confers 
on synods and councils cannot be truly interpreted, nor 
lawfully exercised, to the prejudice of this right ; " that, 
according to the constitution of these churches," to quote 
the words of Messrs. Webb and Thacher, " neither the 
declaration of ministers nor of councils to any particu- 
lar church is to be received by it as law only to be un- 
derstood and so obeyed, but as counsel to be advised 
on, weighed, and determined upon according to the 
word of God, by the body of Christians to whom it is 
made ; though we freely confess the affair ought to be 
managed with the greatest honor and respect to those 
that give their advice in a solemn way and manner, as 
well as with a due regard to their own both Christian 
liberty and holy edification." In short, the issue to 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 135 

which this controversy came, most clearly shows that as 
late as 1720 it was a prevailing sentiment in Massachu- 
setts that each particular church is the seat and source 
of whatever ecclesiastical power belongs to Congrega- 
tionalists; and that synods, councils, consociations, and 
whatever other machinery may be found convenient 
and helpful in the working of our system, or deemed 
essential to the " well-being of the churches," are to be 
so used. as in nowise to interfere with the free exercise 
of this power.* 

Whatever different views we may have of the expe- 
diency of settling a pastor under the forbidding circum- 
stances which beset the New North church in settling 
Mr. Thacher, it must be confessed, that, as defenders of 
a great principle lying at the foundation of our church 
polity, they were clearly in the right and did a good ser- 
vice ; and it was by losing sight of primitive Congrega- 
tionalism, and looking solely at modern usage as an 
exponent of congregational law, that Mr. Ware, in his 
notice of their proceedings, could have reached the con- 
clusion that " they were clearly in the wrong," — which 
Mr. Robbins, in his valuable " History of the Second 
Church," has inadvertently admitted, p. 301. 



* The issue thus reached is the more worthy of record from the 
fact that the Cambridge Association, embracing all the Boston minis- 
ters, had passed two very stringent resolutions, — one on " the power 
of synods with respect unto particular churches ; " and the other on 
M the power of elders in the government of the church ; " in the for- 
mer of which they claim for councils decisive authority in questions 
brought before them ; and in the other the pastor's right of imposing 
a negative or veto on the decisions of the church. Dr. Mather brings 
these doings of the Cambridge Association into his Magnalia (Vol. II. 
B. V. § 7), in such close connection with some historical remarks of his 
on the Cambridge Platform, that an inattentive reader might easily 
mistake them for an addenda to that document, — as things embraced 
in " the substance of it/' which he is there discoursing of. In truth, 
however, they not only have no connection with it, but, in their spirit 
are antagonist to it. 



136 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XI. 

1720-1730. 

Thirty-five churches organized. — Symptoms of spiritual declension. — Dead 
Orthodoxy, and mistaken remedy for it. — Inadequate salaries. — " Shady- 
side " literature. — Abortive attempt to hold a general synod. — Causes of 
the failure. — Salutary effect of abandoning that mode of relief. 

During the next decade (1720-1730), thirty-five Con- 
gregational churches arose in Massachusetts, and in the 
following order. 

On the 18th of January, 1721, the church in Oxford 
was embodied, and, on the 11th of March succeeding, 
their first pastor, Rev. John Campbell, was ordained. 
This, however, was not the beginning of the Gospel in 
that town. About thirty families of French Protes- 
tants with Mons. Daniel Boudet for their minister, had 
occupied the place from 1686 to 1696, and then fled to 
Boston through fear of the Indians, — leaving to a hard- 
ier and more courageous band of settlers the honor of 
becoming the fathers of the town and founders of the 
first church. Four other churches were gathered during 
, the same year (1721), namely, the present East church 
in Dracut, with Rev. Thomas Parker for their pastor, 
some time in February ; the Leicester church, probably 
on the 15th of September, when Rev. Daniel Parsons 
was installed ; the church in Rehoboth, on the 29th of 
November, with Rev. Daniel Turner for their pastor ; 
and the Cohasset church, probably on the 13th of De- 
cember, as that was the day on which occurred the ordi- 
nation of their first pastor, Rev. Peter Hobart, grandson 
of the Hingham minister of that name, from whose 
church the colony was gathered. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS, 137 

The only church organized in 1722 was the New 
Brick, on Hanover street, Boston, — a secession from 
the New North, occasioned by a controversy growing 
out of Mr. Thacher's settlement, as narrated in the last 
chapter. The " aggrieved brethren," and their associates 
in this movement, professed to have nothing against 
Mr. Thacher, but objected to his removal from another 
church, — a most laudable sentiment in itself; which, 
yet, when resisted by a majority of votes, turned into 
an acrid state of feeling, which could be softened down 
only by the expensive process of building a new meeting- 
house. The church was embodied, and Rev. William 
Waldron, their first pastor, was ordained on the 23d of 
May, 1722. 

In 1723, four churches arose ; the church in Wayland, 
February 11th, a colony from Sudbury, who settled 
Rev. William Cooke for their first pastor on the 20th 
of March following; the church in East Bridgewater, 
probably on the 28th of February, when Rev. John An- 
gier was ordained ; the South church in Weymouth, on 
the 26th of September, with Rev. James Bailey for their 
pastor; and on the 4th of December the church in 
Shrewsbury, whose original members came chiefly from 
Marlboro', and settled Rev. Job Cashing at the time 
of their organization. 

The churches in Hopkinton and Westboro' were 
gathered in 1724 ; the former on the 2d of September, 
with Rev. Samuel Barret for their pastor, and the latter, 
a colony from the Marlboro' church, on the 24th of Oc- 
tober, when Rev. Samuel Parkman was also ordained 
in the pastoral office. 

On the 12th of May, 1725, the Second, or East church 
in Barnstable, separated from the First, or West, and 
settled Rev. Joseph Greene. During the same year, 
probably, the church in Brimfield was gathered, and 
had Rev. Richard Treat for their first pastor ; but with 
the loss of early records is also lost the exact date of 
these transactions. The church in Easton is also con- 
jecturally assigned to this year, with Rev. Matthew 
Short for the first pastor. 



I . 



138 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

The First church in Newburyport (originally the 
Third in Newbury) was organized January 12th, 1726, 
and Rev. John Lowell was ordained the week following. 
The Second church in Amesbury (West parish) was 
separated from the First, June 15th, the same year, with 
Rev. Paine Wingate for their pastor. 

The church in Rutland was gathered, October 9, 
1727, and their first pastor, Rev. Thomas Frink, was 
ordained November 1. The members were prepared 
for an organization four years earlier, and had even gone 
so far as to call a pastor, and fix the day for his instal- 
lation ; but before it arrived they were attacked by the 
Indians, August 14, 1723, and several of the inhabitants 
were slain, among whom was Rev. Joseph Willard, 
their pastor elect. During the same year (1727), the 
following were also gathered : on the 15th of November, 
the church in Westford, from the Chelmsford church, 
and settled Rev. Willard Hall ; the Federal street 
church, Boston, a colony of Irish Presbyterians, with 
Rev. John Moorhead for their pastor ; and, at uncertain 
dates, the North church in Dennis, a part of Yarmouth, 
with Rev. Josiah Dennis for their minister ; also a church 
in Bellingham (now extinct), who settled Rev. Jonathan 
Mills. 

Five churches were gathered in 1728 ; the church in 
Groveland, originally the second in Bradford, May 7th, 
with Rev. William Balch for their pastor ; the church 
in Lunenburg, May 15th, who installed Rev. Andrew 
Gardner the same day ; the church in Holliston, a colony 
from Sherborn, October 31st, over which Rev. James 
Stone was ordained, November 20th; the church in 
Hanover, probably on the 11th of December, when Rev. 
Benjamin Bass was ordained ; and the second, or North 
church in Haverhill, though on what day is not known. 
The first pastor, Rev. James Cushing, was not ordained 
till the 2d of December, 1730. 

In 1729 three churches were organized ; the church 
in Stoneham, July 2d, who settled their first pastor, 
Rev. James Osgood, on the 20th of September follow- 
ing; the church in Methuen, October 29, over which 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 139 

Rev. Christopher Sargent was installed the next week ; 
and the church in Middleton on the 26th of November, 
with Rev. Andrew Peters for their pastor. 

The following five churches were gathered in 1730 : 
— the church in Bedford, with Rev. Nicholas Bowes for 
their pastor, on the 15th of July; the church in Wal- 
pole probably on the 16th of September, when Rev. 
Philips Payson was ordained ; the church in South- 
boro', with Rev. Nathan Stone for their pastor, on the 
21st of October; the church in Wellfleet (the exact 
time not known) under the pastorship of Rev. Josiah 
Lewis ; and the church in Palmer, with Rev. John 
Harvey, who was ordained by the " Londonderry Pres- 
bytery," probably in December. 

These thirty-five Congregational churches, added to 
the number previously organized, makes one hundred 
and seventy-eight in Massachusetts at the close of 
1730, — all formed on the same ecclesiastical model, 
and founded on the same religious faith which the first 
fathers of New England had elaborated from the word 
of God, by years of intense study and prayer. Look- 
ing merely at this fact as it naturally connects itself in 
one's mind with the rapid progress of church extension 
about this time, we find it difficult to believe that we 
are approaching a dark and disastrous period, — the 
darkest and most disastrous of any in our religious 
history. And yet as we pause to examine more closely 
into the inner life of these churches, it becomes but too 
evident that the spirit of their Puritan fathers is suffer- 
ing a rapid decline. The second generation of New 
England's worthies, — those lesser lights, as we have 
called them, in comparison with brighter luminaries that 
went before, — had all disappeared; and nothing yet 
betokened the rising of others to hold even this second- 
ary rank in the religious firmament. The venerable 
Increase Mather, whom Grahame, in his history, char- 
acterizes as " the most eminent theologian, and the 
most pious and popular minister in Massachusetts" 
(Vol. I. 279), went down to the grave in 1723, under a 
sorrowful premonition that the glory was departing 



140 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

from New England, in the decay of spiritual religion. 
Five years later, his son and colleague, Dr. Cotton 
Mather, whose learned pedantry was overmatched by 
his humble piety, left the world lamenting " a gradual 
and a growing apostasy ; " and even expressing the 
"melancholy apprehension, lest New England have 
now done the most that it was intended for; and lest 
our glorious Lord come quickly, in various ways, to 
remove his golden candlesticks from a place which has 
been in a more than ordinary measure illuminated with 
them." (Ratio Discip. p. 196, 1726.) 

Nor were these forebodings without foundation. 
With a creed as sound as John Cotton's, or John Cal- 
vin's, the ministers were lapsing into religious formal- 
ism, and the churches into spiritual apathy. The 
preaching lacked point and personal application, rather 
than orthodoxy ; though not a few preachers, from pru- 
dential reasons, had become nearly silent on certain 
obnoxious truths, much insisted on by their predeces- 
sors, and not a few congregations were all the better 
pleased with this prudent and pointless style of preach- 
ing. In the preface to a small volume of " Five Ser- 
mons on Eternal Election, Original Sin, Grace in 
Conversion, Justification by Faith, and Saints' Perse- 
verance," by Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, of Elizabeth- 
town, N. J. (which preface was written by Rev. 
Thomas Foxcroft, of Boston, soon after this time), the 
writer laments that in the " sermons that pass the 
press" there should be so much "room for the com- 
plaint, which judicious observers have sometimes made, 
that the grand principles of the everlasting Gospel, 
though frequently touched upon, are generally not 
allowed their due consideration, are not so distinctly 
stated and so fully inculcated, as their importance 
justly demands." At the same time he charitably 
hopes that these printed productions may not be a true 
exponent of " the general tenor of preaching." Here 
his charity misled him. Several hundred manuscript 
sermons of that day, found among the collections which 
have already supplied so many materials for this sketch, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 141 

render it certain that the ordinary instructions of the 
sanctuary, as a general thing, were quite as defective in 
fulness and force of evangelical doctrine, as those 
which "passed the press." 

Many seem to think that Arminianism was what 
ailed the ministry at that time. Bat this is a mistake. 
True, the churches were tending in that direction, and 
were likely enough to get there — just as a becalmed 
fleet is liable to drift upon sand-bars and shoals. But 
not a church nor a minister throughout the State had 
yet avowed an Arminian tenet nor renounced an arti- 
cle of the Calvinistic creed. Dead orthodoxy was the 
prevailing religion of the period now under review; 
and, with some marked exceptions, the reciprocal influ- 
ence of pastor and people was like the dead burying 
their dead. Even those who were sufficiently alive to 
notice these death symptoms, appear to have had no 
just idea of the cause and cure. Was piety languish- 
ing, or immorality increasing, or awful judgments im- 
pending? The remedy was, to own the covenant and 
have their children baptized ; or to join the church and 
come to the communion; or to set up family prayers. 
In a sermon dated 1719, from the text " Why have ye 
not obeyed my voice," — which is sufficiently pointed 
and rousing, — the preacher thus "expostulates " under 
the sixth head of " Use II." " What numbers of people 
in some places remain unbaptized ! And are there not 
thousands of people in the land, and some not very 
young neither, who never joined themselves to the 
churches of Christ; and never attend the Lord's Sup- 
per ? " 

In this remedial use of outward forms and rites, which 
was only the ripened fruit of the half-way covenant, we 
discover not only the chief cause of the spiritual declen- 
sion, but the great obstacle to a thorough reform. It re- 
quired the combined powers of an Edwards, a Whit- 
field, and a Tennent, energized and directed by the 
Omnipotent Spirit, to remove it out of the way. Even 
"the great earthquake'' in 1727, which, from all ac- 
counts, must have wrought a powerful religious impres- 



. 142 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

sion on many minds, so far from correcting this fallacy, 
only served to illustrate its force. Mr. Prince, in the 
Christian History (Vol. II. p. 381), speaking of its effect, 
says, "the people were greatly frightened, and many 
were awakened to such a sense of their duty, as to offer 
themselves to our communion." But he candidly adds, 
" very few came to me then under deep convictions of 
their unconverted and lost condition, or with the inquiry, 
4 What shall I do to be saved ? ' but rather to signify 
that they had such a sense of their duty to come to the 
Lord's table, that they dare not stay away any longer." 

Hutchinson speaks of the same, religious awakening, 
and of its transitory character, thus: " There was a 
general apprehension of danger of destruction and 
death, and many who had very little sense of religion 
before appeared to be very serious and devout penitents ; 
but, too generally, as the fears of another earthquake 
went off, the religious impression went with them, and 
they who had been the subjects of both, returned to 
their former course of life." (Vol. II. p. 295.) 

We must not suppose that all the churches were 
equally near the point of spiritual death. Some of 
them were blessed with pastors whose faithful and fer- 
vent preaching forbids the supposition. But we can 
easily believe that a large majority of them were receiv- 
ing unconverted members to their communion, — per- 
sons of fair outward deportment, no doubt, but confess- 
edly or presumptively unregenerate in heart. We can 
also imagine to what extent the custom of " owning 
the covenant" (which by this time had come to mean 
only that those who did so desired baptism for their 
children), must have given an unmeaning and farcical 
air to all religious covenants, and paved the way for 
hypocrisy to enter the church, as also for bold impeni- 
tence to remain easy outside of it. One obvious effect 
of all this was to destroy church-discipline, and thus 
efface the distinction between the church and the world ; 
for unconverted members would not generally be very 
strict in calling others to account, nor stand in much 
fear of being called to account themselves in a church 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 143 

so constituted. True, the doctrines implied in this sys- 
tem of administering the ordinances were contradicted 
by the doctrines professed and preached. " But in the 
end," as has been well expressed by an able pen, " the 
doctrines on which a church is seen to act will prevail 
over those which are merely uttered ; and the state of 
feeling among the members, and ultimately the preach- 
ing itself, will conform to the theory on which the church 
is governed and the ordinances administered." (Great 
Awakening, p. 6.) Precisely so was it with these 
churches and their ministers at the time of which we 
speak. The religion .of their creed died out before its 
theology was changed, — so long before, that men had 
learned to abhor Calvinism as an absurdity, and took 
up Arminianism rather for consistency's sake than from 
conviction. It is worthy of particular notice, not only 
as explanatory of subsequent events, but as admonitory 
to us at the present time, that this deplorable state of 
the churches was the antecedent, not the consequent, — 
the legitimate cause, not the effect, — of all the Armin- 
ianism, Arianism, Pelagianism, or Unitarianism, which 
we shall find developed in the progress of this sketch. 
It is idle to charge upon any external agency the inroads 
which these heresies have made upon our denomina- 
tion, as if the citadel of truth had been carried in a con- 
flict with error. It is through quite another process that 
her dominion is lost and her sceptre taken. That there 
is evermore a tendency in the Christian church, and in 
every member of it, to slide from spiritual religion into 
formalism, need not be shown here; the whole past his- 
tory of the church on earth proclaims it. And this re- 
ligious formalism was the first sign of danger that 
appeared among these Congregational churches. That 
an orthodox creed may exist for a long time in connec- 
tion with a low state of spiritual life, is equally appar- 
ent. It was the case here at the time now described. 
There is unquestionable evidence that the articles of 
faith in all these churches embodied the great doctrines 
of our Puritan fathers throughout this period. But the 
spirit and power of those doctrines were so feebly felt 



144 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

in the hearts of both preacher and people, that it needed 
but the slightest occasion to arouse an active and viru- 
lent opposition to them. Such an occasion was about 
to be afforded ; and that it brought out this result we 
shall see in the next chapter. 

Before leaving this period, a few miscellaneous facts 
may be given, which will serve still further to illustrate 
the state of the churches. The support of the ministry, 
which had never been large, though generally satisfac- 
tory, and always sure, began now to fail, by reason 
mainly of a depreciated currency. The pecuniary terms 
on which ministers were settled in those days, were 
usually stated in two parts — so much for settlement, 
and so much for salary. In country towns, the settle- 
ment was about £200 lawful money, and the salary 
from £70 to £90, which, while corn was ninepence a 
bushel, and labor fourteen cents a day, and fuel merely 
the cost of cutting and carting, made a very comfortable 
living. But when, in consequence of repeated issues of 
bills of credit to meet war expenses, money had lost one 
third or one half its nominal value, it was impossible 
that ministers should live on their former salaries. 
Equity required a readjustment of the terms, to match 
the fluctuations of the currency ; and in some parishes 
this was promptly done. But, as a general thing, relig- 
ion was at too low an ebb, for equity, in such cases, to 
keep its balance. It happened, therefore, as it often has 
since, in times of religious declension, that the support 
of religious ordinances dragged heavily, and many a 
minister's family was reduced to straits. An old pam- 
phlet, published anonymously in 1725, whose tawny 
and tattered condition seems to tell the reader, in the 
language of Job's messengers, " I only am escaped alone 
to tell thee," discloses an affecting and instructive tale. 
It was evidently written by a clergyman, and, as we 
learn from the preface, at the instance of a distinguished 
layman, who was also a magistrate. His object is to 
" lay open and set home " the people's duty in this re- 
gard, though he frankly confesses that he " don't expect 
to convince all who have low and contemptible thoughts 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 145 

of God's word and ministers, or such as are eat up with 
covetousness." After giving the subject a most search- 
ing discussion, and charging the sin of " sacrilege " on 
those who rob God's ministers of an adequate support, 
he proceeds to answer the four following objections, the 
naked statement of which will sufficiently indicate the 
tone of public sentiment at that time. 1. " We give 
our ministers as much as we promised them, or bar- 
gained with them for, when we invited them to the 
work of the ministry among us ; and what can they 
reasonably desire more of us, since we are as good as 
our word to them ? " 2. " If we should give our minis- 
ters more, we should offend and grieve many of our 
neighbors." 3. " We are engaged in a chargeable war, 
so that if we should make our ministers' salaries as 
good as some think they were some years ago, the poor 
would be oppressed, and charges would lie heavy upon 
us all; and we know not why ministers should not 
suffer with us." 4. " We give our ministers enough to 
maintain their families honorably, if they spend it pru- 
dently ; for they have more than many families among 
us spend in a year, who live handsomely, and we know 
no reason why we should give them more; and we 
think they have no reason to complain of us, it being 
apparent that they spend more, and live better in their 
houses, than we do." 

These objections — bating a certain quaintness in the 
wording — would very well express the views still held 
by some in almost all our parishes. But it is certain 
that the annihilating force of this writer's reply to them 
finds nothing at the present day wherewith to liken it. 
As compared with the " shady-side literature " of our 
times, it might be called the Scripture-side logic ; and 
could be withstood only by a shield capable of with- 
standing the thunder of Sinai. This was the second 
time that our Congregational ministry had been im- 
perilled from this cause ; and it deserves particular notice, 
that in this instance it is associated with a wide spread 
declension of religion, as in the other — about seventy- 

10 



146 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

• 

five years before — it stands connected with a general 
depreciation of learning. 

The year 1725 is memorable for an abortive attempt 
— the last ever made in Massachusetts — to hold a gen- 
eral synod. Four assemblies of this kind had preceded 
at different periods, namely, in 1636, 1648, 1662, and 
1679 ; each by an order of the general court, passed at 
the request of ministers. In accordance with this an- 
cient usage, the convention of Congregational ministers, 
at their meeting, May 27th, 1725, " considering the 
great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the 
growth of many miscarriages," made application to the 
provincial legislature, that they would " express their 
concern for the interests of religion in the country, by 
calling the several churches in the province to meet 
by their pastors and messengers in a synod, and from 
thence offer their advice upon that weighty case, which 
the circumstances of the day do loudly call to be con- 
sidered — ' What are the miscarriages whereof we have 
reason to think the judgments of Heaven upon us, call 
us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the 
most evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop 
unto those or the like miscarriages.'" (Hutch. Vol. II. 
292.) The application was granted in council, but the 
house did not concur ; and by the governor's consent, 
it was referred to the next session. This consent of 
that functionary cost him a sharp censure from his 
royal master, which put a stop to the proceeding. It 
appears that the Episcopal ministers in the province 
rose up against it, and found time, during the legisla- 
tive recess, to invoke the aid of the Bishop of London, 
through whose agency the reprimand and veto were 
procured ; on the ground that such a procedure might 
encourage dissenters, over the water, " to ask the same 
privilege, which, if granted, would be a sort of vying 
with the Established church." (Dummer's Letter in 
Hutch. Ibid.) 

Whatever unkind feelings were thereby engendered 
between the three or four clergymen of the Established 
church in Massachusetts, and the ministers placed over 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 147 

her one hundred and seventy-eight churches of the 
" standing order " (which opened an ecclesiastical war 
of several years' duration), it was undoubtedly a favor, 
both to ministers and churches, that no synod was al- 
lowed. This was their last reliance on " Egypt for 
help," — the end of their dependence on secular power 
and outward ecclesiastical forms for the recovery of 
spiritual life. They were now in a condition to appre- 
ciate God's help, and to search out his prescribed but 
forgotten method of obtaining it. 



148 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XII. 

1730-1740. 

Forty-five churches gathered. — Presbyterianism. — Samuel Mather's " Apol- 
ogy for the Liberties of the Churches." — " Great Awakening " — Jonathan 
Edwards and the revival at Northampton. — Prevalence of Arminianism 
arrested. — "Narrative of Surprising Conversions." — Its influence in pre- 
paring the way for a more general revival. 

We now enter upon a period which marks the dawn 
of a brighter day than had passed over these churches 
during the previous half century, — the period of the 
Great Awakening, as it has been called, which saved 
the life of evangelical religion in New England, when, 
to human view, it was about to die of spiritual languor. 
But the first fact which arrests our attention, as we 
glance our eye across the decade, 1730-1740, is the large 
number of Congregational churches — forty-five in all — 
which sprang up during this period. 

The following five arose in 1731 : — the church in 
Uxbridge, chiefly a colony from the Mendon church, 
January 6, whose first pastor, Rev. Nathan Webb, was 
ordained on the 3d of February ; the West church in 
Randolph, derived from Braintree, with Rev. Elisha 
Eaton for their pastor, May 28th ; the Second church 
in West Newbury, September 1, with no settled pastor, 
however, till the ordination of Rev. William Johnson, 
just one year later ; the church in Raynham, a colony 
from Taunton, October 19, which settled Rev. John 
Wales the next day; and the church in Grafton, on 
an Indian reservation, known as Hassanamisco, Decem- 
ber 28, where Rev. Solomon Prentice was settled the 
next day. 

Three churches were settled in 1732: — the church in 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 149 

• 

Georgetown, which separated from the Rowley church, 
October 4, and settled Rev. James Chandler on the 18th 
of the same month ; the Hollis Street church, Boston, 
on the 14th of November, whose first pastor, Rev. 
Mather Byles, was not ordained till December 20, the 
following year ; and the church in Dudley (exact date 
not preserved), over which Rev. Perley Howe was 
settled June 12, 1735, as their first pastor. 

Four churches sprang up in 1733: — the church in 
Carver, from the Plymouth church, with Rev. Othniel 
Campbell for their pastor, May 13 ; the church in 
South Hadley, with Rev. Grindall Rawson for their 
pastor, October 3 ; the church in Harvard, derived 
chiefly from Lancaster and Stow, October 10, having 
Rev. John Secomb for their pastor; and the church 
in Wilmington, a colony from the Woburn church, 
which settled Rev. James Varney, October 24. 

On the 16th of October, 1734, two churches were 
formed, namely, one in Townsend, with Rev. Phineas 
Hemmenway for their pastor, and another in Hali- 
fax under the pastorship of Rev. John Cotton ; the 
First church in Stockbridge, October 18, originally 
a mission church, was planted among the Stock- 
bridge Indians, over which Rev. John Sergeant was 
ordained the year following ; and a second church 
in Sandwich, composed of seceders from the first, with 
Rev. Francis Worcester for their only pastor, as a re- 
union was effected in 1749 * 

On the 18th of April, 1735, a schism occurred in the 



* So completely was this church absorbed by its reunion with the 
first, that no lingering tradition of its existence could be found among 
the present inhabitants of the town, when a few scraps from the 
early records — supposed to have been lost more than a hundred 
years ago — were lately discovered among the entries made after the 
settlement of Mr. Williams, in 1749. From these data, it appears 
that the separation grew from a diversity of views touching the old 
custom of " relating experiences" before the congregation, in con- 
nection with a public profession of faith ; and that it was finally 
healed by an agreement to leave it optional with each candidate to 
do it or not. 



150 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

I^irst church, Salem, from which the present Tabernacle 
church derives its date ; though according to all received 
rules of settling such questions, it should bear the date 
of the First church (August 6, 1629), and the other 
should be numbered the Third.* During the same 
year (1735), arose also the West church in Dedham, 
with Rev. Josiah Dwight for their pastor, June 4 ; 
the church in Upton, probably in the month of August, 
at which time they called Rev. Thomas Weld to be- 
come their pastor, though his ordination was delayed 
till two years later ; a second church in Maiden, with 
Rev. Josiah Stimpson for their pastor, September 24 
(which reunited with the first after about sixty years' 
separation) ; the church in Sheffield, on the 22d of 
the same month, with Rev. John Hubbard for their 
pastor; the church in Burlington on the 29th of Octo- 
ber, with Rev. Supply Clap for their pastor; the 
West church in Haverhill about the same time, with 
Rev. Samuel Bachellor ; and the church in Blandford, 
a colony from Hopkinton, embodied before leaving 



* " For twenty years, the present Tabernacle church alone was 
called the First church. The minority of the First church, by the 
aid of a council and the legislature, ' dismissed ' Mr. Fisk, the pas- 
tor, on the 18th of April, (0. S.) 1735. Having held together and 
hired preaching for about a year, they were duly organized as a 
church in 1736, under the style of ' The Church and Parish of the 
Confederate Society in Salem/ More briefly, they were called the 
1 Confederate Church ; ' while their brethren, who had been separated 
from them by an ecclesiastical procedure which would not have been 
possible, since the Revolution, called themselves and were called by 
others ' The First Church of Christ in Salem/ Their organization 
was the same as had been transmitted from the 6th of August, 1629. 
In the course of twenty years, some of the former friends of Mr. 
Fisk returned to the church and society of those who had procured 
his forced and violent dismissal from his original pastorate. Perhaps 
the thorough evangelical spirit of Rev. Mr. Leavitt's preaching dis- 
affected them. However this was, their return gave the Confederate 
church a ' majority of those who were members of the First church, 
at the time of Mr. Fisk's dismission ; ' and it was therefore voted, 
that, from July 28, 1755, the church 'take on them in all public 
transactions the title of the First church in Salem !'" — Dr. Wor- 
cester's Memorial of the Old and New Tabernacle, p. 81. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 151 

home, and which subsequently settled for their first 
pastor, Rev. Mr. McClenathan, an Irish Presbyterian. 

In 1736, the following churches were gathered: — 
the South church in Dedham, June 23, which settled 
Rev. Thomas Balch on the 30th ; the church in Stur- 
bridge, chiefly from Medfield, September 29th, with Rev. 
Caleb Rice for their pastor ; the church in Hardwick, 
November 17, with Rev. David White for their pas- 
tor; and the Second church in Boxford (West Parish) 
on the 9th of December, over which Rev. John Cushing 
was ordained on the 29th of the same month. 

Five churches were gathered in 1737: — the Lynde 
street church in Boston, January 3d, which settled Rev. 
William Hooper on the 18th of the following May; 
the church in Mansfield a colony from Taunton, proba- 
bly on the 23d of February, when Rev. Ebenezer White 
was ordained ; the church in Belchertown, probably 
during the spring, with Rev. Edward Billings, who was 
ordained in April, 1739 ; the church in Berkley, an 
offshoot from the Taunton church, November 2d, with 
Rev. Samuel Tobey, who was ordained on the 23d of 
the same month ; and the church in Tewksbury from 
the Billerica church, probably on the 23d of November, 
when Rev. Sampson Spaulding was ordained. 

The following five churches were constituted in 
1738 : — the North Bridgewater church, January 3d, 
whose first pastor, Rev. Johp Porter, was not settled till 
two years later; the church in Franklin, from the 
Wrentham church, February 16th, which settled Rev. 
Elias Howe on the 8th of November following ; the 
Second church in Plymouth (Manomet precinct), Novem- 
ber 8th, with Rev. Jonathan Ellis for their pastor, hav- 
ing had stated preaching among them for about seven 
years ; the church in Acton, from the Concord church, 
which also settled Rev. John Swift on the 8th of 
November; and the church in Petersham, with Rev. 
Aaron Whitney for their first pastor, some time in the 
month of December. 

Five churches were gathered in 1739 : — the West 
Cambridge church, originally the second in Cambridge, 



152 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

September 9th, with Rev. Samuel Cooke for their pastor ; 
the First church in Amherst (West Parish), a colony 
from the Hadley church, November 7th, which settled 
Rev. David Parsons the same day ; the church in Sau- 
gus, originally the third in Lynn, December 5th, with 
Rev. Edward Cheever for their pastor ; and the Second, 
or North church in Marshfield, under the pastoral care 
of Rev. Atherton Lewis. 

The three following were organized in 1740; the 
church in Wareham, January 5, with Rev. Rowland 
Thacher for their first pastor; the Second church in 
Rochester (Mattapoisett), probably on the 29th of Oc- 
tober, when Rev. Ivory Hovey was ordained ; and the 
church in Shutesbury (the precise date lost), whose first 
pastor, Rev. Abraham Hill, was not ordained till April 
10, 1742. 

Thus at the close of 1740 there were located in Mas- 
sachusetts a fraternity of Congregational churches to 
the number of two hundred and four, unless we except 
the Federal street church in Boston, and the church in 
Palmer, both of which were organized Presbyterially, 
but soon afterwards assumed their present Congrega- 
tional form. It may be proper here to add that the pas- 
tors of several others had strong Presbyterian tenden- 
cies, and took various methods to bring their respective 
churches to the same views ; but with little or no suc- 
cess. The theory of Congregationalism, especially that 
first principle which concedes to the brotherhood the 
power of control, was so clearly perceived and tena- 
ciously held, and consistently practised, that ministers, 
neither singly nor in association, could turn the popular 
current from the deep channel in which it had flowed 
peacefully along for more than a century. If Samuel 
Mather's " Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in 
New England," which was published in 1738, may be 
taken as a true exponent of the Congregationalism then 
current (and it professes to be such), never did these 
churches have a clearer understanding of their liberties, 
nor less disposition to surrender them. Neither his 
father, Cotton Mather, nor his grandfather, Increase, nor 






IN MASSACHUSETTS. 153 

yet his great-grandfather, John Cotton, in any of their 
numerous writings on the same subject, is quite so 
explicit in defining the rights of the churches, nor so 
bold in defending them against all human interference, 
whether ecclesiastical, synodical, or ministerial. He had 
evidently read " The Churches' Quarrel Espoused," by 
John Wise ; and instead of passing it over in " digni- 
fied silence and pious contempt," — - visum est non alio 
remidio quam generoso silentio et pio contemptu utendum 
nobis esse (C. Mather's Ratio. Dis. 185,) — as the author 
of the Proposals had tried to do, he has wrought the 
substance of it into this " Apology," and has thereby 
shown that the spirit of it pervaded those churches as 
late as the period we are now passing. 

Especially important is it, before dismissing this 
author, to learn from him what position synods and 
councils held at that time in the administration of eccle- 
siastical affairs. Chapter VIII. (pp. 109-18) seems to 
be devoted exclusively to this subject, for its heading is, 
" The Liberty of these Churches to sit and act in Coun- 
cils and Synods, Cleared and Vindicated; and the 
Power of Synods explained." The first paragraph 
asserts the consistency and desirableness of calling to- 
gether such bodies " upon requisite occasions ; " but 
repudiates the idea of turning these " occasional helps 
into the form of a carnal state polity, and erecting a 
government out of friendly and Christian consultations." 
" There may be synods or meetings of pastors for pro- 
moting peace and concord ; but there is great danger 
lest such meetings should be hurtful to the principles 
and liberties of particular churches." Councils should 
be composed of " pastors and laymen in equal numbers, 
and both should have equal right to speak their senti- 
ments ; but if the churches should only have such bish- 
ops or pastors as are either not so well acquainted with 
their constitution, or are enemies unto it, it is their duty 
to keep them at home, at least." (p. 112.) As to the 
proper functions of such bodies thus constituted, " they 
neither pretend to nor desire any power that is juridical. 
If they can but instruct and persuade, they gain their 



154 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

end ; but when they have done all, the churches are still 
free to accept or refuse their advice." (p. 118.) The 
author confesses that some of his brethren " think it 
not enough for councils to persuade and give advice, but 
want something more for them." Instead of conceding 
it, however, he calls on the churches firmly to resist it. 
" Let them never blindly resign themselves to the direc- 
tion of their ministers ; but consider themselves as men, 
as Christians, as Protestants, obliged to judge and act 
for themselves in all the weighty concernments of relig- 
ion." (pp. 32, 122.) It may be worth while for the in- 
telligent reader of this sketch to inquire among his remi- 
niscences of past ecclesiastical troubles in our churches, 
— the bitter and long-standing quarrels which could 
not be healed by mutual councils, nor ex parte councils, 
nor anti-councils, — and see how many of them have 
originated in, or have been perpetuated by, either a 
heedless or a wilful departure from the principles of 
Congregationalism as here set forth by Rev. Samuel 
Mather, the last of our New England fathers, whose ut- 
terances on this subject are entitled to the weight of 
patristic authority. 

In passing from ecclesiastical matters to those more 
strictly religious, we seem to be carried back to the val- 
ley of dry bones, and are permitted to witness the vision 
of returning life which Ezekiel there saw. The spirit- 
ual torpor which we found settling down upon the 
churches at the close of 1730, as described in the last 
chapter, continued to benumb the souls of men till about 
the year 1733, when, in not a few towns, the preaching 
had become so fully conformed to the practice, that the 
existence of Arminianism to an alarming extent could 
no longer be doubted. The pretence of such preachers 
" that they were only explaining some of the doctrines 
of Calvinism more rationally than had formerly been 
done," just to avoid certain difficulties which incum- 
bered the truth, was no longer conceded by their more 
evangelical brethren : and a controversy arose, which at 
first assumed " a very threatening aspect upon the inter- 
est of religion." As the results of this controversy were 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 155 

of vital moment, and entirely different from what was 
feared by many good men, the facts, as stated briefly by 
President Edwards in his " Narrative of Surprising 
Conversions," deserve a place here. " The friends of 
vital piety," says he, " trembled for fear of the issue ; 
but it seemed, contrary to their fear, strongly to be over- 
ruled for the promoting of religion. Many who looked 
on themselves as in a Christless condition, seemed to 
be awakened by it, with fear that God was about to 
withdraw from the land, and that we should be given 
up to heterodoxy and corrupt principles; and that then 
their opportunity for obtaining salvation would be past. 
Many who were brought a little to doubt about the 
truth of the doctrines they had hitherto been taught, 
seemed to have a kind of trembling fear with their 
doubts, lest they should be led into by-paths, to their 
eternal undoing; and they seemed, with much concern 
and engagedness of mind, to inquire what was indeed 
the way in which they must come to be accepted with 
God. There were some things said publicly on that 
occasion, concerning justification fey faith alone." (Ed- 
wards's Works, Vol. IV. 21.) 

The modest allusion, in this last sentence, to the 
part which he himself took in the controversy, is char- 
acteristic of this great man. It is well known that his 
two discourses on Justification by Faith alone, from 
Rom. 4 : 5, and others on kindred themes which fol- 
lowed in the series, not only put to rout the Arminian 
forces entrenched all around him, but were instrumental 
in the conversion, as he believed, of " more than three 
hundred souls" among his own flock, "in the space of 
half a year; and about the same number of males as 
females." Some of his most influential parishioners at 
first deprecated his course, and besought him to desist, 
through dread of some undefinable harm that might 
come from combating the prevalent easy religion of the 
day with such hard and metaphysical doctrines. " But 
it was no proof of arrogance in him, to be conscious 
that he understood the crisis and the subject, and was 
able to say things that his pebple needed to hear." 



156 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

(Great Awakening, 10.) In his preface to the sermons 
on "Justification by Faith alone," published a few years 
after, he says : " While I was greatly reproached for de- 
fending this doctrine in the pulpit, and just upon my 
suffering a very open abuse for it, God's work wonder- 
fully brake forth amongst us, and souls began to flock 
to Christ, as the Saviour in whose righteousness alone 
they hoped to be justified. So that this was the doctrine 
on which this work in its beginning was founded, as it 
evidently was in the whole progress of it." (Works, 
Vol. V. 348.) 

It was near the close of 1734 that this extraordinary 
revival commenced in Northampton, from whence it 
soon spread into South Hadley and Suffield ; then in 
Sunderland, Deerfield, and Hatfield ; afterwards in West 
Springfield, Longmeadow, and Enfield ; finally in Had- 
ley and Northfield, — thus penetrating "from one end 
to the other of the county." It may here be added, 
that in Connecticut also there was a similar work of 
grace in some sixteen towns, which, if not directly re- 
ferable to the awakening in Northampton, was simul- 
taneous with it, both in its beginning and decline, and 
it partook of precisely the same characteristics. These 
characteristics were strongly marked, and can ail be 
accounted for on principles not less philosophical than 
scriptural. Edwards has described them fully in his 
" Narrative," the study of which is essential to a right 
understanding of the doctrinal and religious differences 
which that revival so suddenly developed throughout 
New England. An allusion to one or two must suffice 
for this sketch. Most prominent among them was an 
utter abandonment of all self-help in securing salvation. 
Whatever solemn truth or alarming providence might 
have arrested the thoughtless sinner's attention, his 
whole subsequent experience till he became a con- 
firmed convert was an illustration of the text, " But to 
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifi- 
eth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness;" 
and thus contradicted "the new-fashioned divinity," as 
"the Arminian scheme of justification by our own vir- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 157 

tue " was then called. Two circumstances, no doubt, 
conspired to give prominence to this characteristic of 
the revival: first, the preliminaries to conversion had 
been constantly preached, but to no practical purpose; 
do and live, do and live, had long been sounding in the 
ears of congregations that were all the while doing less, 
and becoming more dead; second, the opposite doctrine 
of justification by faith alone had been cleared up 
once more, as it was at the opening of Luther's reform- 
ation ; men now understood it, and were, intellectually 
at least, convinced of its truth. So that their religious 
convictions, when once aroused, would almost inevita- 
bly have this type, which Edwards calls a feeling of 
" absolute dependence on God's sovereign power and 
grace, and an universal necessity of a Mediator." An- 
other marked characteristic of the revival was, a clear 
perception, on the part of its subjects, of God's justice; 
— his justice in "their condemnation" while in a nat- 
ural state — his "just liberty with regard to answering 
their prayers, or succeeding their pains," while they con- 
tinued in that state — his justice " in receiving others 
and rejecting them." Edwards mentions some who felt 
such a " sense of the excellency of God's justice, that 
they almost called it a willingness to be damned ; 
though it must be owned they had not clear and dis- 
tinct ideas of damnation, nor does any word in the 
Bible require such self-denial as this. But the truth is, 
as some more clearly expressed it, salvation appeared 
too good for them ; that they were worthy of nothing 
but condemnation ; and they could not tell how to 
think of salvation being bestowed upon them, fearing 
it was inconsistent with the glory of God's majesty, 
which they had so much contemned and affronted." 
(lb. IV. 39.) 

It is easy to imagine how strange such a commotion 
in the religious world would seem, springing suddenly 
from out the dead calm that had reigned for years. It 
was like the earthquake, all the more startling from the 
stillness that precedes it. These experiences, too, — so 
unlike any thing that had been experienced by multi- 



158 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

tudes of reputable professors ; and the religious truths 
therein illustrated, — so opposite to the prevalent 
preaching, — could hardly fail to provoke comparison 
and arouse opposition. If this was the way to heaven, 
many church-members and some ministers were not 
walking thitherward. If this was true religion, their 
hopes were fallacious. They must, of necessity, think 
ill of the one or the other. " It was inevitable, human 
nature being what it is, that evidence should be sought 
and found against the work at Northampton ; that all 
real faults should be gathered up and reported ; that a 
bad interpretation should be put upon every thing that 
the hearer or beholder could not understand ; and that 
every evil report should be exaggerated, till the sum 
total met the wishes of those who were anxious to con- 
demn the work, lest the work should condemn them." 
(Great Awakening, 17.) 

Here, then, commenced a divergence between two lines 
of theological speculation, and two corresponding types 
of religious experience, which, under different names, 
and at different angles of divergency, have been pro- 
jected into our times. And it is worthy of particular 
notice that this classification was, in the most literal 
sense, the work of God's Spirit; that the affinities on 
which it was formed were developed in a revival of re- 
ligion, and sprang solely from the differing views enter- 
tained respecting regeneration, or the new birth. This 
explains the fact that the Arminianism of New Eng- 
land from that day to this (except among the Metho- 
dists) has partaken more largely of the Pelagian than 
of the Arminian element, though the name has not been 
changed. It also accounts for certain metaphysical dis- 
tinctions in explaining the doctrine of the new birth 
which have attached to the orthodox New England 
theology ever since that time. When rightly under- 
stood and clearly presented, it may be called revival 
theology, and originated with Edwards. 

In bringing this chapter to a close, it ought to be 
stated that the revival of 1734-6, though it suffered a 
perceptible decline during several years following, is 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 159 

not to be separated from that more extensive awakening 
which followed the labors of Whitefield in 1740-2, and 
which will be noticed in the next chapter. The spell 
of stupidity had been broken in a considerable number 
of the churches, and the spiritual incubus shaken off. 
Tidings of these strange things came to other places, 
and put men upon thought. In answer to a request 
from Dr. Colman of the Brattle street church, Boston, 
Mr. Edwards wrote him an account of the revival in 
Northampton and its neighborhood, which was pub- 
lished, and copies sent to England and Scotland. This 
excited so much interest in the circles where it came, 
that a more full account was desired and obtained, 
which was also published in London, under the title of 
" Narrative of Surprising Conversions," with an intro- 
duction by Drs. Watts and Guise, and in 1738 repub- 
lished on this side the water, with several sermons from 
the same author, which had been especially blessed in 
promoting the work. Evangelical pastors and church- 
members were greatly quickened in many places where 
no general awakening prevailed; and private praying 
circles called " Societies," or " Family meetings," were 
instituted in the different neighborhoods of many towns, 
with a " Covenant " or " Constitution," subscribed by 
the members, obliging them to meet at each other's 
houses weekly or monthly " to seek the Lord." An 
original document of this sort, found among the papers 
of Deacon Henry Prentiss of Cambridge, and in his 
own handwriting, gives seven " reasons " for such a 
meeting, and twelve "rules" for conducting it, which 
reasons and rules breathe a spirit of piety and peni- 
tence most refreshing to contemplate, — reminding one 
of those "who passing through the valley of Baca 
make it a well ; the rain also filleth the pools." All 
these recuperative measures were preparing the way for 
that wonderful effect which the preaching of White- 
field produced when he first visited New England in 
the latter part of 1740. 



160 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1740-1750. 

Organization of forty-five churches. — Friendly relations of Congregationalists 
and Presbyterians. — George Whitefield's first visit to New England, and 
the effects of his labors. — Gilbert Tennant. — James Davenport, and the 
Separatists. — Strife of parties. — Whitefield's second visit. — His antago- 
nists. — Estimate of the revival. 

The period on which we are now entering (1740- 
1750) is scarcely less distinguished for the planting of 
new churches, than for the spiritual renovation of those 
already planted. 

The following five sprang up in 1741 : — the church 
in Milford, April 5, whose first pastor, Rev. Amariah 
Frost, was ordained December 21, 1743; the church in 
Sharon, from the Canton church, May 20, and settled 
Rev. Philip Curtis on the 13th of January following ; 
the North church in Wilbraham (originally the Fourth 
in Springfield), with Rev. Noah Merrick for their pas- 
tor, in June ; the church in Bolton, chiefly from the Lan- 
caster church, November 4, with Rev. Thomas Goss for 
their first pastor ; and the church in Bernardston, which 
embodied in Deerfield, November 25, where Rev. John 
Norton was also ordained over it the same day. 

On the 19th of July, 1742, Rev. Samuel Mather's 
church, so called, seceded from the Old North in Bos- 
ton, where he had been colleague pastor with Rev. 
Joshua Gee for about nine years, and organized as the 
Tenth Congregational church, and built a meeting-house 
on the corner of North Bennett and Hanover streets, 
which they occupied till the death of Dr. Mather in 
1785 ; when, in accordance with his dying request, the 
flock returned to their former fold, and the . meeting- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 161 

house subsequently passed into the hands of the Uni- 
versalists. During the same year (1742), on the 20th 
of October, the church in Westminster was gathered, 
with Rev. Elisha Marsh for their pastor; the church in 
New Salem, December 15th, with Rev. Samuel Kendall 
in the pastoral office ; and the church in Holden, chiefly 
from the Worcester church, on the 22d of December 
following, when Rev. Joseph Davis was also ordained 
as their pastor. 

The eight following were organized in 1743: — the 
North church in Middleboro' (Titicut parish), February 
4, whose first pastor, Rev. Solomon Reed, was not for- 
mally settled till 1750 ; the church in Southampton, a 
colony from the Northampton church, with Rev. Jon- 
athan Judd for their pastor, June 8 ; the church in 
Leominster, a part of Lancaster, September 14, when 
Rev. John Rogers was also ordained ; the church in 
Boylston, a part of Shrewsbury, October 6, which set- 
tled Rev. Ebenezer Morse on the 26th ; the church in 
Great JBarrington, an offshoot from Sheffield, December 
28, with Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D., for their first pas- 
tor ; and some time during the same year, the churches 
in Warren, and the East parish of Haverhill, the former 
with Rev. Isaac Jones, and the latter with Rev. Benja- 
min Parker, for their respective pastors, who were botta 
ordained the next year. 

Five churches arose in 1744 : — the church in Spencer r 
a colony from the Leicester church, May 17, which set- 
tled Rev. Joshua Eaton on the 17th of November fol- 
lowing ; the church in Stoughton (the third that arose 
within the original limits of that town), August 10$, 
which was destitute of a pastor till the settlement of 
Rev. Jedediah Adams, on the 19th of February, 1746; 
the church in New Marlboro', October 31, w T ith Rev. 
Thomas Strong for their pastor; a small church in 
Plymouth, which seceded from the First, with Rev. 
Thomas Frink for their pastor, November 7, and re- 
turned in 1776; and the church in Sterling, a part of 
Lancaster, December 19, with Rev. John Mellen for 
their first pastor. 

11 



162 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Some time during 1745, the Second, or South church 
in Hingham was separated from the First, with Rev. 
Daniel Shute for their pastor; also the church in Pel- 
ham (originally Presbyterian), with Rev. Robert Aber- 
crombie for their pastor, whose ordination sermon — still 
extant — was preached by President Edwards. 

On the 3d of January, 1746, nineteen disaffected mem- 
bers of the First church in Newbury, withdrew, and formed 
a separate organization, — the same is now the First 
Presbyterian church in Newburyport, — and shortly 
after settled Rev. Jonathan Parsons. On the 21st of 
May following, the church in Northboro' colonized from 
the Westboro' church, with Rev. John Martin for their 
pastor ; and on the next day, May 22, a large secession 
from the Second church in Ipswich (now Essex) was 
effected, and Rev. John Cleaveland was settled over the 
new organization, February 25, the year after. A re- 
union, however, was effected in 1774. 

In 1747, the following nine were added : — the church 
in Pepperell, from the Groton church, January 29, which 
settled Rev. Joseph Emerson, on the 25th of the next 
month ; a second church in Woburn, with Rev. Josiah 
Cotton for their first and only pastor, July 15, whose 
members, after a few years, were amicably reunited 
with the First, from which they came; the church in 
Lincoln (originally the Second in Concord), August 20, 
which settled Rev. William Lawrence the next year ; 
the present Second, or South church in Ipswich, August 
22, with Rev. John Walley for their pastor; the pres- 
ent First church in Mill bury, October 10 (which was 
then the Second in Sutton), w r ith Rev. James Wellman, 
who was ordained the following month ; the church in 
Douglas, a colony from Sherborn, November 11, over 
which Rev. William Phipps was ordained December 
16; the church in Harwich, November 6, with Rev. Ed- 
ward Pell for their pastor ; a church in Fall River (then 
Freetown), with Rev. Silas Brett for their first and only 
pastor, whose faithful but unappreciated labors in that 
field were terminated and the church disbanded in 1775; 
and, probably, the First, or East church in Granville, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 163 

with Rev. Moses Tuttle for their first pastor, but the 
exact date is lost. 

On the 17th of February, 1748, another Congregational 
church arose in Boston, the eleventh in number, known 
as Rev. Andrew Croswell's, which occupied a place of 
worship on School street, built and formerly used by a 
congregation of French Protestants. At the close of 
Mr. Croswell's pastorate, the members returned to the 
several communions from which they came, and their 
meeting-house again changed owners, falling at length 
into the hands of the Catholics, where their first church 
in Boston was constituted. On the 31st of August, the 
same year, 1748, the church in Hanson was gathered 
from the Pembroke church, and settled Rev. Gad Hitch- 
cock, D. D., in October following; also the East church 
in Attleboro', on the 30th of November, with Rev. Peter 
Thacher for their pastor, who had preached to them 
statedly during the previous five years. 

Only two Congregational churches were gathered in 
1749 ; the Linebrook church in Ipswich (whose mem- 
bers occupy a part of Rowley also), November 15, when 
Rev. George Leslie was ordained as their first pastor ; 
and the church in Greenwich, probably on the 20th of 
December, when Rev. Pelatiah Webster was ordained. 

In 1750, four churches arose: — the church in Athol, 
August 29, over which Rev. James Humphrey was or- 
dained in November following ; the church in Tyring- 
ham, September 25, which settled Rev. Adonijah Bid- 
well, October 3 ; the Second, or West church in Med- 
way, October 4, whose first pastor, Rev. David Thurston, 
was not ordained till June 23, 1752 ; probably the West 
church in Middleboro' (with a membership located 
partly in Taunton), who had, for their first pastor, Rev. 
Benjamin Ruggles ; and near the close of the year, a 
company of Scotch-Irish were organized into a church 
in Colerain by the " Boston Presbytery," and settled 
Rev. Alexander McDowell. 

It will be seen that several of these later churches, 
like two or three of an earlier date, whose original 
members came from Scotland, or the north of Ireland, 



164 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

were formed at first on the Presbyterian model. But 
as they all, with a single exception, afterwards assumed 
the Congregational polity, which they still retain, their 
history, excepting only that one, is included in this 
sketch, — which now, at the close of 1750, embraces 
two hundred and forty-six churches. The first perma- 
nent organization of Presbyterians in Massachusetts 
was the one gathered from the Old Newbury church in 
1746, as already noticed, — a movement, by the way, 
which originated not so much in a denominational 
spirit, as in the deep religious excitement that divided 
so many other churches at that time. It is pleasing to 
add, in this place, that the two denominations, through- 
out this period, and through long years on either side 
of it, were essentially one, not only in Christian doc- 
trine, but in ecclesiastical and ministerial fellowship. 
There is no historic record, no remembered instance, of 
opposition on the part of our Congregational fathers to 
the gathering of a Presbyterian church, wherever were 
found members of that communion desirous of doing 
so. But records and reminiscences without number are 
at hand, showing a cheerful consent. As early as 1640, 
when Congregational churches were the only ones here, 
and had every thing their own way, a band of Presby- 
terians wrote from Scotland " to know whether they 
might be freely suffered to exercise their Presbyterial 
government amongst us ; and it was answered affirm- 
atively, they might." ( Winslow's Brief Narr. in Young's 
Chron. 405.) From that time almost to the present, 
" Heads of Agreement," " Plans of Union," and coop- 
erative alliances mark the way-side along which the two 
have travelled together, mutually " endeavoring to keep 
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." True, 
our fathers were tenaciously attached to their own 
church polity, — more so than the bulk of their descend- 
ants are at the present time, and defended it from en- 
croachments with more warmth of zeal. Even those 
Scotch brethren, to whom such a ready welcome was 
extended, were told " not to expect that we should pro- 
vide them ministers ; but getting such themselves, they 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 165 

might exercise their Presbyterial government at their 
liberty, walking peaceably towards us, as we trusted we 
should do towards them." And when, as Winthrop in- 
forms us (Vol. II. 137), a discussion arose in a conven- 
tion of ministers and magistrates in 1643, about" the 
Presbyterial way," which was " concluded against " in 
that body, it was simply a conclusion not to change 
their own way, at the request of the " Newbury minis- 
ters,"^ — who, the governor rather curtly adds, "took 
time to consider the arguments." And among the many 
sharp sayings of John Wise, in his " Churches' Quarrel 
Espoused," nothing is said against Presbyterians hold- 
ing to their own polity, but only against Congregation- 
alists giving up theirs. It was by this peaceful yet firm 
and consistent adherence to their principles, and not by 
the arts of proselytism, that the Congregational churches 
of Massachusetts so generally drew the Presbyterians 
who came among them to their views of church-govern- 
ment. 

But the distinguishing characteristic of this -period in 
our ecclesiastical history is " The Great Awakening," 
whose antecedents and opening chapter have been al- 
ready given. The revival at Northampton and its vicin- 
ity in 1735 had subsided, but its influence through Mr. 
Edwards's published " Narrative," was silently pervad- 
ing the eastern section of the province, when Rev. 
George Whitefield arrived in Boston, September 18, 
1740, on his first visit to New England. His fame had 
preceded him. In the afternoon of the next day he 
preached in Brattle street meeting-house to "about four 
thousand people ; " the day following, in the Old South, 
to " six thousand ;" and on the Common, at a later hour 
of the same day, to " eight thousand," — which out-door 
assemblies afterwards increased to " twenty " and even 
" thirty thousand." These numbers are taken from his 
own published journal; and though usually adopted by 
his biographers without questioning, must be received 
with some abatement — at least the meeting-house as- 
semblies must — unless he included the outside throng, 
who could neither see the preacher nor hear his voice. 



166 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

From Boston he proceeded east as far as York, in 
Maine ; then west to Northampton ; and completed the 
tour of New England on the 1st of December, having 
travelled upwards of eight hundred miles in seventy-four 
days, and " preached one hundred and seventy-five 
times in public, besides exhorting frequently in private." 

In order to form any just conception of the religious 
excitement that everywhere attended his preaching, on 
this remarkable tour, one must bear in mind the relig- 
ious formalism and deadness that for long years before 
had been creeping over the ministers and churches ; the 
undisguised appearance of men at the Lord's table, 
and in the pulpit, who did not pretend to have been 
born again, and of a vastly larger number, whose pre- 
tensions lacked evidence ; the distressing fear of being 
utterly forsaken of the Lord, which began to oppress 
pious hearts all over New England, just before the 
"Surprising Conversions" in the valley of the Con- 
necticut, — a valley, w T hich, like that of " Achor," was 
mercifully " given for a door of hope " at that despond- 
ing moment ; together w 7 ith a universal expectation, or 
dread (according to the different views that each one 
held) of some remarkable effects to follow the advent 
of Mr. Whitefield here, as elsewhere. In these cir- 
cumstances, let it only be supposed that he preached 
the truth of God intelligibly and faithfully, adapting 
that truth to the known religious wants of his auditors, 
and applying it fearlessly, earnestly, eloquently, — giv- 
ing to the doctrine of the new birth a prominence, cor- 
responding with the privacy into which it had retired, 
and declaring boldly to unconverted professors and 
preachers just what God plainly says in his word of 
their character, — and we can easily see that there must 
have been an upheaving of the stagnant public senti- 
ment on religion, which, like ocean waves lifted by the 
tempest, could not be easily controlled, nor suddenly 
rocked again to rest. 

Only two weeks after Mr. Whitefield left New Eng- 
land, Rev. Gilbert Tennent came, and performed a 
similar tour of about the same length. These two 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 167 

preachers, extremely dissimilar in their pulpit oratory, 
were remarkably alike in their power to impress (the 
one by melting, the other, by crushing) the hearts of 
their hearers. Both were unsparing in their denuncia- 
tions of dead formalism, and were sufficiently, though 
not very offensively, personal, in their addresses to un- 
converted ministers and church-members. Immense 
were the throngs that attended their meetings on all 
days of the week, and at all hours of the day ; and 
large accessions were made to the churches. Magis- 
trates and civilians, merchants and mechanics, children, 
servants, and negroes, all were religiously affected, and 
gre^t numbers hopefully converted. Opposition, where 
it existed, was generally concealed, or, if it broke forth 
in open demonstrations, it was utterly powerless to stop 
the movement, which, thus far, was manifestly the work 
of God, and seemed scarcely to abate under the ordi- 
nary means of grace, when Whitefield and Tennent had 
withdrawn. Alluding to this stage of the revival, Mr. 
Prince, in his Christian History, says: " And thus suc- 
cessfully did this divine work, as above described, go on, 
without any lisp, as I remember, of a separation, either 
in this town, or province, for above a year and a half 
after Mr. Whitefield left us, namely, the end of June, 
1742; when the Rev. Mr. Davenport, of Long Island, 
came to Boston. And then, through the awful provi- 
dence of the sovereign God, the wisdom of whose 
ways are past finding out, we unexpectedly came to an 
unhappy period, which it exceedingly grieves me now 
to write of." 

The long story of what followed, filling an immense 
number of pamphlets, many of which (thanks to Mr. 
Prince) are still preserved in the Old South library,, 
may be intelligibly told in a few words. Rev. James 
Davenport, a lineal descendant of the renowned John. 
Davenport of New Haven ancl Boston, early caught 
the revival spirit, which, in him as in many others, 
soon rose to enthusiasm, and ended in fanaticism. In. 
the progress of his wild career, and before his extrava- 
gances had crippled his influence, he came to Charles- 



168 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

town, where his conduct during the Sabbath excited 
painful suspicions, and brought him into a conference 
with the ministers of Boston and vicinity, which resulted 
in a published " Testimony " against four particulars 
in his practice, and a decision, on their part, not to 
invite him into their pulpits. This, of course, offended 
those who, by sympathy of nature or taste, were in- 
clined to indulge Mr. Davenport's vagaries, and brought 
him out in open denunciation " against us all," says 
Rev. Mr. Prince, " naming some as unconverted, rep- 
resenting the rest as Jehoshaphat in Ahab's army, and 
exhorting the people to separate from us ; which so 
diverted the minds of many from being concerned about 
their own conversion, to think and dispute about the 
case of others, as not only seemed to put an awful 
stop to their awakenings, but also on all sides to in- 
flame our passions, and provoke the Holy Spirit in a 
gradual and dreadful measure to withdraw his influ- 
ence." As Edwards and Whitefield and Tennent 
represented the class of ministers whom God employed 
as promoters of this work, so may Davenport, and his 
ever ready apologists Croswell and Pomeroy, be taken 
as exponents of a numerous class, whose rash and 
erratic zeal, by involving the work in controversy, 
brought it to a pause. The Separatists, as they were 
called, w T ere by no means discriminating in their alleged 
reasons for separation. Some withdrew because they 
were opposed to the revival, even in the mildest form 
of it; others, because the churches and ministers would 
not go with them to the full extent of their " new 
light" and new measures. Not a few of these last, 
becoming involved in strife with their brethren, and 
exposing themselves to church censure and civil penal- 
ties, at length changed their denominational standing, 
and became Baptists, -▼- not so much through dissatis- 
faction with their baptism, as with the legal distraints 
upon their property to support ministers from whose 
flocks they had conscientiously separated. It is often 
insinuated that the civil enactments of that period bore 
peculiarly hard upon the Baptists; but what are the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 169 

facts ? The former restraints upon their liberties had 
been relaxed, at least to the acknowledgment of their 
rights, as a denomination, to organize churches, support 
ministers, and worship God in their own way, with a 
full exemption from assessment to support ministers of 
the " standing order," as the Congregationalists were 
called. It was this " standing order," on which the 
law bore the hardest, by compelling all who were not 
Baptists, or something else known as a distinct denom- 
ination, to pay taxes for the support of the " able, 
learned, Orthodox minister," whom the major part of 
the town voters had settled over them. Separations, 
unless brought about in the way provided for by statute, 
were not allowable, nor were such separatists released 
from their due proportion of taxes in the society from 
which they came. This wrought immense mischief to 
the Congregationalists, and contributed largely to build 
up the Baptists, by driving the disaffected into their 
ranks. Of the forty-five Congregational churches in 
Massachusetts that sprang into life during the ten years 
now under review, eight or nine had their origin in this 
spirit of separatism ; while more than twice as many 
others, originating in the same spirit, grew at length 
into Baptist churches, and therefore are not included in 
our list. 

These small local strifes by degrees ran into a general 
controversy, which divided the churches throughout New 
England into two great factions (the friends and the 
opposers of the revival), which, in 1743, gave expression 
to their conflicting views in published testimonials. 
The first came forth from the u general convention of 
Congregational ministers," under this heading : " The 
Testimony of the Pastors of the Churches in the Prov- 
ince of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, at their 
Annual Convention in Boston, May 25, 1743, against 
several Errors in Doctrine, and Disorders in Practice, 
which have of late obtained in various parts of the Land; 
as drawn up by a Committee chosen by the said Pas- 
tors, read and accepted, paragraph by paragraph, and 
voted to be signed by the Moderator in their name, and 



170 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

printed." The other was headed " The Testimony and 
Advice of an Assembly of Pastors of Churches in New 
England, at a meeting in Boston, July 7, 1743, occa- 
sioned by the late happy Revival' of Religion in many 
parts of the Land." As to the first of these documents, 
the way in which it was brought in and carried through 
occasioned much discontent, and some angry corre- 
spondence. By a vote of thirty-eight ministers, it was 
signed by the moderator "in the name of the conven- 
tion." It was subsequently doubted whether there 
would have been a majority without the votes of minis- 
ters from other colonies ; and whether more than " one 
fifth of the ministers in Massachusetts would have sub- 
scribed their names, if the proposal for a personal sub- 
scription had prevailed." The utterance of this testi- 
mony, under these circumstances, led to an immediate 
call for another convention of the friends of the revival, 
to be held in Boston, July 7, the day after college com- 
mencement, to give their testimony in its favor. Those 
approving of the design who could not be present were 
desired to " send their attestations, and communicate 
their thoughts seasonably in writing." This was the 
body from which the second document proceeded, with 
the signatures of sixty-eight, and the attestations of 
forty-five, — one hundred and thirteen in all, of which 
twenty-eight were from other colonies. 

To this pass had the controversy come, and thus the 
parties stood, when Whitefield made his second visit to 
New England, in October, 1744. And though his 
auditors were counted by thousands, and his friends in 
Boston offered to build him " the largest place of wor- 
ship ever seen in America," which he declined ; though 
he preached often, and in his journal records " movings" 
and " meltings " as formerly, and some interesting cases 
of conversion, still there was no revival, in the present 
technical sense of that word. " People heard, and were 
affected; but there was no spreading among the im- 
penitent, as if by sympathy, or by a simultaneous im- 
pression on all, of those views which constitute con- 
viction of sin. Nor ought any thing else to have been 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 171 

expected. Both ministers and people were thinking too 
much about the man, to profit by his preaching." (Great 
Awakening, 369.) Mr. Whitefield's time, too, was much 
taken up in self-vindication, — publishing replies to 
published assaults, answering charges brought against 
him by associations, and correcting statements in the 
second edition of his journals, which had been too hastily 
admitted into the first. These journals, by the way, 
appear to have kindled hotter resentment against him 
than his preaching. And it must be confessed that 
many of his strictures, especially on Harvard and Yale 
colleges, as published in the first edition, were extrav- 
agant, and his estimate of the number of unconverted 
ministers was uncharitable. He himself confessed it, 
and magnanimously expunged or modified what he had 
written in not a few instances, and made frank apol- 
ogies. But it was of no avail. The doctrines which 
he preached, rather than the measures which he pur- 
sued, were what moved the leaders in the opposition to 
take up arms against him ; though it was mainly by 
combating offensive measures, that the war was carried 
on. The insane extravagances, fanaticisms, and denun- 
ciations of Davenport and his associates, the wild dis- 
orders of the Separatists, and the wicked retaliations 
which these provoked, were all laid to the charge of 
Whitefield, and held up as fruits of the revival. It was 
in vain that he could disprove such charges brought 
against himself, unless he would also denounce those 
claiming to be his followers who were guilty of them ; 
and equally vain for the guilty themselves to make and 
publish retractions, as Davenport did, in the most hum- 
ble, penitential phrase ; nothing would allay the oppo- 
sition. As further evidence that it was the revival, and 
not its mere accompaniments, that aroused this resent- 
ment, Dr. Sewall, of the Old South church, made an 
earnest endeavor, in the convention of 1743, to insert 
" an attestation to a revival of religion in many parts 
of the land," in connection with their " testimony against 
errors and disorders" (for its friends in that body were 
not unwilling to join in condemning the disorders which 



172 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

had grown out of it), but the proposal was resisted and 
ruled out. In fact, the two parties into which the min- 
isters and churches of Massachusetts were then divided, 
leaving out the Separatists, differed mainly in this : 
both acknowledged the existence of disorders, and con- 
demned them; but while the one could see little or 
nothing else as the fruits of the revival, the other saw 
fruits of grace also which infinitely outweighed them. 
The one noticed only the tares that came up with the 
wheat; the other saw them overtopped by bending 
grain, which, in spite of the tares, was ripening for a 
bountiful harvest ]\Jr. Edwards was the acknowledged 
champion of these last, and Dr. Chauncy of the others. 
Edwards's " Narrative of Surprising Conversions" was 
followed by Chauncy's " Wonderful Narrative ; or a 
Faithful Account of the French Prophets, their Agi- 
tations, Ecstacies, and Inspirations." Edwards pub- 
lished his " Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New 
England," which was the great work on that side ; the 
next year Chauncy followed it with his " Seasonable 
Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England," 
the great work on the other side. Edwards admits and 
censures the evil, but rejoices in the abounding good 
that has come from the revival, and prays for its con- 
tinuance. Chauncy admits that some good has come 
of it, but vastly more evil, and wishes the " commotion " 
at an end. 

If, now, regardless of these conflicting opinions, we 
attempt to form a candid judgment of the Great 
Awakening by observations made from our stand- 
point, and in the light which an intervening century 
has shed upon its results, all evangelical Christians 
must come to the conclusion — which, in fact, they 
have long since reached — that it was preeminently a 
work of God's grace., carried on with great power, and 
productive of vast results. Whether we regard the deep 
sleep from which it roused the churches throughout the 
land, the number of hopeful converts (estimated by 
some at 50,000) with which it replenished them, or the 
new life it breathed into their pastors and teachers, we 






IN MASSACHUSETTS. 173 

are forced to this conclusion. And there were other 
kindred results, which, if not so suddenly developed, 
were even more important in their transmitted influ- 
ence. The death-blow which it gave to the " Half-way 
covenant/' and the custom of admitting unconverted 
men into the church and into the ministry ; the bounds 
which it set to the growth of Arminianism, Pelagian- 
ism, and Socinianism (for even this last was beginning 
to make its appearance) ; and the prominence which 
the doctrines of grace have ever since held in the sys- 
tem of New England theology ; these are among the 
abiding effects of that revival. Princeton and Dart- 
mouth Colleges both grew indirectly out of it ; as also 
the mission of David Brainard to the heathen, and the 
monthly concert of prayer for the world. Even the 
disorders which attended it — those fanaticisms, strifes, 
separations, which gave so much grief to its friends 
and disgust to its enemies — were not without their 
practical use. Like beacon fires and buoys along the 
sea-coast warning the voyager of rocks and shoals, they 
have afforded most instructive lessons of caution in sub- 
sequent revivals. Especially did the troubles occasioned 
by the Separatists, which were counted among the 
greatest evils of the day, result in a great advantage to 
the Congregational denomination, by crushing out the 
spirit of parish despotism, which had installed itself 
among them. Religious liberty, in the parochial and 
ecclesiastical sense of that word, made great advances 
in the conflicts which it waged against unnatural and 
obnoxious restraints. 



174 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XIV. 

1750-1760. 

Religious declension. — Sixteen churches gathered. — Influence of the French 
war in retarding church extension. — Legislative enactments against relig- 
ious disorders. — Edwards and Chauncy, the two antagonist champions. — 
Symptoms of Unitarianism. — Correspondence of Edwards and Wiggles- 
worth on the subject. — Removal of Edwards from Northampton. 

In passing on from the period of the great revival in 
the days of Edwards and Whitefield, we soon discover 
tokens of another declension, though in several respects 
unlike the dead formalism that preceded it. Among 
the earliest signs of it in Massachusetts was a gradual 
and growing inattention to the ordinary means of grace. 
Neglecters of public worship were increasing, — the re- 
sult, it may be, in part, of overtasking the powers of 
nature in times of extra religious meetings. New set- 
tlements were not so promptly supplied with Christian 
ordinances ; men were not so distressed at the idea of 
living and training up families without them. New 
churches were not gathered with the same despatch as 
heretofore. The following sixteen w T ere all that were 
organized among the Congregationalists in this State 
during the ten years from 1750 to 1760. 

The First church in Ware was probably organized 
May 9, 1751, when Rev. Grindall Rawson, their first 
pastor, was ordained; the people having been favored 
with occasional preaching for about ten years. 

The three following arose in 1752: — the church in 
North Brookfield, originally the Second in Brookfield, 
May 28, which settled Rev. Eli Fobes, D. D., on the 
3d of June following; the church in Chicopee parish 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 175 

| 

(the second in Springfield), Sept. 27, with Rev. John 
McKinstrey for their pastor; and the church in Mon- 
tague, November 22, with the settlement of Rev. Judah 
Nash, the same day. 

The church in Barre, an offshoot from Rutland, was 
gathered July 30, 1753, and installed Rev. Thomas Frink 
the next October. 

The two following were organized in 1754: — the 
First church in Greenfield, March 28, with Rev. Edward 
v Billings for their pastor ; and the church in New Brain- 
tree, April 18, which settled Rev. Benjamin Ruggles 
the same day. 

The church in Rockport, originally the fifth in Glou- 
cester, was gathered February 13, 1755, with Rev. 
Ebenezer Cleaveland for their pastor; and the church 
in Templeton, December 10 of the same year, which 
settled Rev. David Pond. 

The church in the present town of Brookfield, for- 
merly the south parish, arose April 15, 1756, though 
their first pastor, Rev. Nathan Fiske, D. D., was not 
ordained till May 24, 1758; and on the 24th of Febl 
ruary, the church in Sandisfield was gathered, and set- 
tled Rev. Cornelius Jones. 

On the 12th of May, 1757, the church in Dunstable 
was organized, and ordained Rev. Josiah Goodhue on 
the 8th of June following. Previously, the inhabitants 
worshipped with the church in Dunstable, N. H., which 
at first was counted as a Massachusetts town. 

The North church in Rochester, Sniptuit parish, was 
gathered during the early part of 1758, with Rev. 
Thomas West for their pastor; and on the 28th of 
December following, the church in Becket, which set- 
tled Rev. Ebenezer Martin, on the 23d of the next Feb- 
ruary. 

The church in Ashburnham was organized April 23, 
1760, with Rev. Jonathan Winchester for their pastor; 
and the church in Warwick, December 3, over which 
Rev. Lemuel Hedge was settled the same day. 

The fact that so few churches were gathered during 
this decade, — less than half the number that sprang up 



176 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

in either of the two preceding, — must not be ascribed 
wholly, perhaps not mainly, to a decline of religious 
interest. There were other causes at work. The 
" French war," extending through nearly the whole of 
this period, was sufficient of itself to paralyze the arm 
of Christian enterprise. The expensive armaments 
called forth to intercept the French in that bold scheme 
of theirs for confining the English colonies to the At- 
lantic slope, by drawing a military cordon along the 
whole frontier, from the Bay of Fundy to the Missis- 
sippi river, exhausted the men and the means, which 
would otherwise have found occupation in planting 
new settlements and churches. From the day that the 
youthful George Washington, with his handful of vol- 
unteers, built their little Fort Necessity, on the banks 
of the Ohio, in 1754, to check the aggressions of the 
French, till the complete conquest of Canada, in 1760, 
the peaceful pursuits of domestic life were continually 
interrupted by the stern requisitions of war. And the 
prominence which Massachusetts held among her sister 
colonies, as also her proximity to the chief points of in- 
vasion, threw upon her citizens a large share of the 
burden. In the disastrous fight of Braddock on the 
banks of the Monongahela, in the battle of Lake 
George, in the expedition to Crown Point, in the siege 
of Niagara, in the reduction of Louisburg, and in the 
capture of Quebec, her blood and treasure were pro- 
fusely expended. What wonder if, in these circum- 
stances, Christianity made but slow progress in the 
form of church extension, or, in fact, in any other form. 
"When it is remembered that the treaty of 1762, which 
terminated the war with France, was followed, only 
three years later, by the passage of the " Stamp Act," 
the first in that series of oppressions which brought on 
a war with the mother country, engrossing the mental 
and physical powers of the entire population, till inde- 
pendence was achieved, in 1783, we are prepared to 
expect, not only a suspension of Zion's growth, but an 
eclipse of her former glory, — a decay of piety in these 
lately revived churches. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 177 

This last phase challenges our special notice, on ac- 
count of its connection with the rise and spread of 
Unitarianism. It will be recollected that the revival, 
so happy in its beginning and early developments, soon 
became mixed with great disorders, giving occasion for 
its enemies to raise opposition, in which, also, they 
were able to enlist many real but cautious friends of 
evangelical piety. The spirit of antagonism took va- 
rious forms. In Connecticut, pains and penalties 
amounting to persecution were resorted to. The legis- 
lature of that colony in 1742 passed " An Act for regu- 
lating abuses and correcting disorders in ecclesiastical 
affairs," which deprived a settled minister of his salary, 
if he went over his parish line to preach without invita- 
tion from the pastor there settled ; or, if no pastor was 
there, from a majority of the church and society ; and 
if the offender was "not an inhabitant within the 
colony," whether a regularly ordained minister, or only 
an exhorter, " every such teacher or exhorter (so the 
act ran) shall be sent, as a vagrant person, by warrant 
from any one assistant or justice of the peace, •from 
constable to constable, out of the bounds of this colo- 
ny." (Trumbull's Hist. Conn.) This oppressive law 
was not a dead letter. It went into stern operation, not 
only upon such wild separatists as Davenport, but 
against the renowned Dr. Bellamy (then a young ex- 
horter) and Rev. Samuel Finley, afterwards president 
of the college at Princeton, and others of a similar 
type.* 

* In an old pamphlet of sixty-six pages, printed in 1744, entitled 
" A seasonable Plea for the Liberty of Conscience, and the Right of 
private Judgment, in Matters of Religion, without any Controll from 
human Authority — being a Letter from a Gentleman in the Massa- 
chusetts Bay to his Friend in Connecticut," ascribed to Thomas 
Cushing, Esq., speaker of the house of representatives, in 1746, this 
act is reviewed with great ability. The intense purpose of its framers 
to have it rigidly enforced, appears from an incidental allusion of the 
reviewer to a subsequent amendment, " occasioned," as he tells us, 
" by that good gentleman, Mr. Finley's coming, at the direction of a 
Presbytery in the New Jersey government, who had been applied to 
for a minister, and preaching to a Presbyterian church at Milford, 



178 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

In eastern Massachusetts the revival was " assailed 
by sneers, reproaches, unfavorable insinuations, and 
slanderous reports." These, in the hands of shrewd 
and learned men, like Drs. Chauncy and Mayhew, of 
Boston, were incomparably more hurtful than the legal 
enactments of Connecticut. The contumely heaped 
upon warm, active, devoted piety, under the name of 
" fanaticism," and upon the promoters of it as " New- 
lights," was all the harder to face down in communities 
where real fanaticism was confessedly at work, under 
pretence of superior sanctity. In the region of North- 
ampton the same feeling found vent in ecclesiastical 
proscriptions. The decided stand which Mr. Edwards 
took against the admission of unregenerate persons to 
the communion table, contrary to the custom of his 
grandfather Stoddard, awakened a spirit of resentment, 
which after repeated trials to effect his removal, at 
length succeeded, by a majority of one vote, in a coun- 
cil convened June 22, 1750. 

The unreasonable and un- Congregational procedure 
through which this calamitous issue was reached, can 
be accounted for only by supposing a settled hostility to 
the revival and its practical results. This supposition is 
sufficiently verified by the recorded action of the church 
and parish, as also by the published result of a prelim- 
inary council. In the preface to his farewell sermon, 
among the "gross misapprehensions" which he deemed 
it proper for him to correct, is this : " That I had fallen 



who had joined themselves to that Presbytery and put themselves 
under their care ; for which, being transported out of the govern- 
ment, he returned and preached to a Congregational church at New 
Haven ; and for this he was adjudged, by the civil authority, to be 
transported again, which was but in part effected, through the negli- 
gence of some officer ; and, I am told, he returned and preached 
again." The amendment was to the effect, that a transported min- 
ister, thus returning, besides paying the costs of his transportation, 
shall be put under £100 bonds not to repeat the offence. In sum- 
ming up his estimate of such legislation, the writer, with great perti- 
nence, remarks : " And how near this comes to turning judgment into 
wormwood may deserve the serious consideration of some." 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 179 

in with those wild people who have lately appeared in 
New England, called Separatists ; and that I myself 
was become a grand Separatist." It hardly need be 
said that this opprobrious insinuation was mere pre- 
tence, maliciously put forth, like the cry of " mad dog " 
against the unlucky spaniel doomed to death by the 
offended Quaker. The true cause of the trouble, and 
what such men as Edwards saw to be a real ground 
of alarm throughout New England, is indicated in the 
sermon itself under the third head of " advice/' thus : 
" Another thing that vastly concerns the future prosper- 
ity of the town is, that you should watch against the 
encroachments of error ; and particularly Arminianism, 
and doctrines of a like tendency." Alluding to -the ap- 
prehensions of danger from this source just before the 
revival in Northampton, sixteen years earlier, he goes on 
to say : " But the danger then was small in comparison 
of what appears now. These doctrines, at this day, are 
much more prevalent than they were then. The pro- 
gress they have made in the land within seven years 
seems to have been vastly greater than at any time in 
the like space before. And they are still prevailing, and 
creeping into all parts of the land, threatening the utter 
ruin of the credit of those doctrines which are the pecul- 
iar glory of the gospel, and the interests of vital piety. 
These principles are exceedingly taking with corrupt 
nature, and are what young people, at least such as 
have not their hearts established with grace, are easily 
led away with. And if these principles should greatly 
prevail in this town, as they very lately have done in 
another large town I could name, formerly greatly noted 
for religion, and so for a long time, it will threaten the 
spiritual and eternal ruin of this people in the present 
and future generations." 

The allusion here made to Boston- (for that was un- 
doubtedly the "large town" referred to), and to the 
" doctrines of a like tendency " with Arminianism then 
and there breaking in with such a threatening aspect, 
would seem almost prophetic, on the supposition that 
Unitarianism had no existence in these churches earlier 



180 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

than its open avowal in 1810-15. But this idea is not 
supported by facts. The essential elements of the sys- 
tem can be distinctly traced back to the middle of the 
last century. In 1750, Dr. Bellamy (Works, Vol. I. 49) 
was perplexed at seeing " the country so generally set- 
tled in their prejudices against experimental religion 
and the doctrines of the Gospel," so soon after such a 
" general outpouring of the Spirit ; " and to check the 
mischief done by " enthusiasts " on the one hand, and 
" heretics " on the other, he published his " True Relig- 
ion Delineated." Ten years later, in 1760, he wrote 
thus: "But perhaps you will say, 'the Calvinists are 
too suspicious ; there are no Arminians, no Arians, no 
Socinians, etc., among us. The cry is raised by design- 
ing men, merely to answer political ends.' O that this 
were indeed the case! O that our fears w^ere quite 
groundless ! How soon would I believe it, if you could 
help me to c see just reason for it.' But how would the 
party through New England laugh at our credulity in 
Connecticut, if their friends among us could make us 
believe all to be safe, till they could carry their points 
here as they have elsewhere. In the New Hampshire 
province this party have actually, three years ago, got 
things so ripe that they have ventured to new-model 
our Shorter Catechism ; to alter, or entirely leave out, 
the doctrines of the Trinity, of the decrees, of our first 
parents being created holy, of original sin, Christ satis- 
fying divine justice, effectual calling, justification, etc., 
and to adjust the whole to Dr. Taylor's scheme. Come 
from New Hampshire along to Boston, and see there a 
celebrated D. D. at the head of a large party. He bold- 
ly ridicules the doctrine of the Trinity, and denies the 
doctrine of justification by faith alone." (Vol. III. 386.) 
In 1759, Rev. Noah Porter of Fairfield, Ct, wrote: 
" And even the doctrine of the sacred and adorable 
Trinity has been publicly treated in such manner as all 
who believe that doctrine must judge not only heretical, 
but highly blasphemous." 

The following letter from Pres. Edwards to Prof. Wig- 
glesworth of Harvard College, and the professor's 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 181 

answer, never before published, will be found to shed 
much additional light on a dim page of our religious 
history. It is taken from a manuscript copy in the pos- 
session of Dr. Felt, at the rooms of the Congregational 
Library Association : — 

" Stoekbridge, Feb. 11, 1757. 
" Rev., and Dear Sir : — 

" I can't assign any particular acquaintance as my warrant for 
troubling you with these lines ; not being one of them that have been 
favored with opportunities for such an advantage. I only write as a 
subject and friend of the same Lord, and a follower and fellow-disci- 
ple of the same Jesus. A regard to his interests has made me un- 
easy ever since I read Dr. Mayhew's late book, some time the last 
year, and saw that marginal note of his, wherein he ridicules the 
doctrine of the Trinity. 

" And my uneasiness was increased after I had wrote to Mr. Fox- 
croft upon it, and fully expressed my sentiments to him concerning 
the call of God to ministers that way, or others whose business it was 
to teach the doctrines of Christianity, to appear publicly on this oc- 
casion in defence of this. doctrine ; and he, in reply, informed me 
that the same affair had been proposed and considered at the board 
of overseers ; and in the issue nothing concluded to be done. Very 
lately Mr. Emlyn's book has fallen into my hands, published in New 
England by one that calls himself a layman ; who, in his dedication 
to the ministers of the country, gives them an open and bold (though 
a very subtle and artful) challenge to answer that book, and defend 
the proper deity of Christ, if they can. Since I have read this book 
I am abundantly confirmed that my opinion, signified to Mr. Fox- 
croft, was right ; and that the call of God that some one should ap- 
pear in open defence of this doctrine, is very loud and plain ; and 
that an universal neglect of it in the churches of New England on 
th'is occasion, will be imputed by the Head of the church, whose 
glory is so struck at, as a lukewarmness that will be very displeasing. 

" Though I live so much at a distance, yet I know so much of the 
state of the country, that I am persuaded it will be of very bad con- 
sequence. This piece, by many, will be looked upon as invincible. It 
will be concluded that those who maintain the divinity of Christ are 
afraid to engage, being conscious that they are unable to defend their 
cause ; and the adversary will triumph, and that cause will more and 
more prevail. 

" Now, sir, I humbly conceive that you, above all others in the 
land, are called to engage in this cause. You are set for the instruc- 
tion of our youth in divinity in the principal seminary of learning ; 
and it. will be among them especially that these pernicious principles 
will be like to gain ground. Something from you will be more re- 
garded and attended to than [from] any other person. 

" I have heard say that your health is not firm ; which may pos- 



182 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

sibly be an objection with you against engaging in a laborious con- 
troversy, which, if once begun, may possibly be drawn out to a 
great length ; and probably spending your time in controversy may 
be much against your inclination. But yet you doubtless will allow 
that the case may be so, that Christians may be evidently called, in 
adverse providences, to engage in very irksome and. laborious ser- 
vices, and to run considerable ventures in the cause of their Lord, 
trusting in him for strength and support; as men, in a just war for 
their king, in many cases doubt not of their being called to great 
fatigues, and to very great ventures even of life itself. And shall all 
stand by at such a day as this, under the testimonies of God's anger 
for our corruptions, which are already so great, and see the cause "of 
Christ trampled on, and the chief dignity and glory of the King of 
Zion directly and boldly struck at, with a challenge to others to de- 
fend it if they can, and be silent, every one excusing himself from 
the difficulty and fatigue of a spiritual warfare ? I live one side, far 
out of the way ; I know not what the view of the ministers of the 
country is ; I can only judge what the case requires. I think Zion 
calls for help ; I speak as one of her sons. If nothing be done, I 
dread the consequences. I entreat you, sir, for Christ's sake, not 
lightly to refuse what I have proposed and requested, and forgive the 
freedom which has been used by, ( 

a Honored sir, with great esteem and respect, 
" Your son and servant, 

"Jonathan Edwards. 
" To the Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, D. D., Professor of Divinity 
in Harvard College, at Cambridge." 

Prof. Wigglesworth replies in a long letter, of which 
the following is an abridgment: " Among many things 
exceptionable in the marginal notes [of Dr. Mayhew's 
book] I at length met one which seemed to insinuate 
that the canoa of the Old Testament was compiled ac- 
cording to the humor and caprice of the people ; that 
some books were admitted and others left out of the 
canon, according as the people relished or disrelished 
the contents of them. I immediately thought that this 
was the first thing which demanded my attention. For 
if the divine authority of the books of the Old Testa- 
ment be once shaken, besides all the other mischiefs (too 
many to be mentioned) we shall be deprived of the 
weight of that evidence which might be drawn from them 
for the true and proper Godhead of our Saviour. I, there- 
fore, at my very next lecture, delivered the inclosed dis- 
course, which I ask your candid acceptance of," — which 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 183 

discourse, we learn from the same letter, was published at 
the " request of almost every student in the college," 
as an antidote to the doctor's heretical views. Harvard 
College, a hundred years old, vindicating the true and 
proper Godhead of our Saviour against the possible 
harm that may come to it from a blow aimed at " the 
divine authority of the books of the Old Testament ! " 
— and all this through her learned theological profes- 
sor!! 

The writer lets out other secrets which have a deep 
significance ; as that, in the " Boston Lectures," during 
the vacation following the publication of his views, " the 
worthy ministers of that town were generally vindicat- 
ing the divinity of Christ." " At length came out a 
catholic and judicious discourse of Mr. Pemberton upon 
that subject, prefaced by Dr. Sewall and Mr. Prince, the 
two oldest ministers of the town. I thought it was now 
time to have done, and wait in silence till we saw 
whether any thing would be replied to Mr. Pemberton 
or to me. And I believe (for more than one reason) 
that if no further stir had been made, we should have 
met with no more trouble. But the printers, who live 
very much by disputes, observing that the people's pas- 
sions were up, that anything on that subject would 
fetch a penny, and that every thing was supposed to be 
pointed at Dr. Mayhew, continued printing little things 
with pompous advertisements about them in the news- 
papers, week after week. If it had not been for these 
repeated and long continued provocations, I don't think 
we should ever have seen the ' Layman's ' new edition 
of ' Emlyn's Inquiry.' " The professor hopes this book 
of Emlyn will not have much of a run ; but if it should, 
he stands ready to " give the youth of the college the 
best preservative " in his power against it. He thinks 
it " by no means desirable," however, to " publish a new 
answer to a book that hath been answered over and 
over again on the other side of the water." This would 
be to " encourage hungry printers to pester us with new 
editions of any pernicious books written in other coun- 
tries," and " set us a writing and sending more grists to 



184 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

their mill." If any thing in this line is to be done, he 
would recommend " the reprinting the best answer to 
Mr. Emlyn which hath been written abroad ; and per- 
haps some other ' layman ' may usher it on to the stage 
with as much address as Mr. Emlyn hath been intro- 
duced with before it. This would serve all the good 
purposes which would be served by printing a new 
answer to him. And at the same time it would avoid 
giving any occasion, which some of the adverse party 
seem to wish for, of setting the controversy on foot 
among ourselves ; a thing which I would avoid as 
much as possible consistent with a due concern for such 
an important truth. For if the gentlemen get to writ- 
ing one against another upon so interesting a subject, I 
greatly fear that the debate will be managed with so 
much acrimony and warmth on one side, and perhaps 
with such an intermixture of threat and sarcasm on the 
other, as would be a great disservice to the interests of 
religion. And if the controversy be once begun, per- 
haps neither I nor you, sir, who are much younger, will 
live to see the end of it." The writer expresses himself 
much pleased with Mr. Edwards's " concern for the hon- 
or of our blessed Lord," though differing from him 
somewhat " about the most prudent methods to support 
and vindicate it, at the present conjecture ; " and closes 
his interesting letter with, " I pray God direct us to 
what may be most agreeable to his will. "We both aim 
at the same end, though we may not have the same 
sentiments about the means to compass it." The un- 
controversial " method " of Professor Wigglesworth 
prevailed, and its dire consequences have been seen. 
What the result of President Edwards's plan would 
have been, we never shall know ; but we wish it had 
been tried. 

From the foregoing facts it is sufficiently evident, 
first, that Unitarianism, in its germinal state, had an 
existence in these Congregational churches soon after 
the revival of 1740 ; second, that in some of them it 
had expanded into Arianism and Socinianism before 
1760 ; third, that it was not so much an exotic, as a 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 185 

native production, quickened into life under the heat of 
an earnest repugnance to the old doctrines of grace as 
these were preached and practised in a revival of relig- 
ion. No doubt the writings of Taylor and Whitby 
and Emlyn were helpful in directing the steps of such 
as were leaving the " old paths ; " but the long con- 
tinued declension of religion which had been filling the 
churches with unconverted members, and even the pul- 
pits with unconverted ministers, — this was unques- 
tionably the cause of the defection, whatever be re- 
garded as the occasion of it. Let us do justice to our 
Unitarian friends by conceding the point, much insisted 
on of late, that Unitarianism was not imposed upon 
our churches " by an adroit manoeuvre," but sprang up 
spontaneously in our own membership. (See Ellis's 
Half-century of the Unitarian Controversy.) And let 
them also, in a spirit of equal justice, concede a point 
not less evident, — that it grew from decayed piety and 
dead orthodoxy. Whatever useful hint this fact may 
suggest to others, it behooves the present ministers and 
members of orthodox churches to bear in mind and lay 
to heart the admonitory lesson which it teaches. 

But while these anti-evangelical tendencies were 
thus developing under the husbandry of a few talented 
men, there were others, not less talented and more 
numerous, m whose teachings from the pulpit and the 
press were giving to the churches an opposite tendency, 
— actually bringing the bulk of them to a higher standard 
of Christian life and orthodoxy than had been seen 
here for many years before. The powerful intellect and 
pious heart of Edwards, no longer permitted to exert 
their wonted influence through the pulpit, were never 
so effectively employed as after his removal from North- 
ampton. How little is true greatness beholden to its 
materia] surroundings for a development ! Rising 
superior to all outward impediments, amid the dull 
routine of daily toil as an instructor of the half-civilized 
children of the forest, he found opportunity to exert a 
power which is felt to this day, not in New England 
only, but throughout Christendom. From out that 



186 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

obscure retreat of his among the Stockbridge Indians, 
in less than six years he sent forth those masterly pro- 
ductions of his pen, " Freedom of the Will," " God's 
last end in Creation," "The Nature of Virtue" and 
" Original Sin," — " the ablest and most valuable works," 
says his biographer, " which the church of Christ has 
in its possession." The strong-jointed theology found 
in these productions, and in others of the same class 
from his pupils and coworkers, Bellamy and Hopkins, 
had a powerful effect on the evangelical ministry of that 
day, by stimulating theological inquiry, and laying bare 
the sophisms of error, and detecting counterfeit piety. 
It came to pass, therefore, that the evangelical system, 
as it sunk into disesteem with some of the churches, 
was more than ever prized by others; and as it ceased 
to be taught in one pulpit, was preached with increas- 
ing pungency in another. Consequently, though no 
breach of ecclesiastical or ministerial fellowship had 
yet ensued, a distinction of parties was everywhere 
recognized, — subsequently known as the " liberal," the 
"evangelical;" and in the action of councils and con- 
ventions, party feeling oftentimes rose to a pretty high 
pitch. The removal of Mr. Edwards from Northamp- 
ton has already been referred to as an illustration,; and 
as it also illustrates the tyranny which ministers and 
churches can impose upon each other by turning the 
harmless functions of a council into those of an ecclesi- 
astical court, it may be well to call up the case again, 
as Paul does some passages of Hebrew history, which, 
he says, " happened for ensamples, and were written 
for our admonition." 

The trouble originated in an attempt of the pastor to 
correct certain immoralities, known to prevail among 
the younger members of the church. This gave um- 
brage to some of their friends. It must be borne in 
mind, that the custom introduced by his predecessor, 
of admitting members to full communion without pro- 
fessing to have been " born again," was still in vogue 
at Northampton, and prevailed in the neighboring 
churches generally. The subject had pressed Mr. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 187 

Edwards's conscience for some time ; and perhaps this 
case of difficulty in dealing with unworthy members 
may have given it additional force. In the early part 
of 1749, his mind was made up that he could no longer 
receive members without a public profession of godli- 
ness. The announcement of this fact raised a storm 
of opposition which appears unaccountable to us, who 
never saw a reputedly orthodox church of our denom- 
ination in which these views of Mr. Edwards were not 
in actual practice. So it was in earlier times through- 
out New England ; but not so at the time of this trans- 
action. To such a mind as that of Edwards, the 
most natural and scriptural, and the only Congrega- 
tional, way of going to work, was to instruct his people 
on the subject, showing them the grounds of his opin- 
ion, and answering their objections ; with the reasonable 
presumption, that, if his views were founded in truth, he 
could make them appear so to others. But the leading 
opposers did not care to run that risk. The church 
committee were extremely averse to hearing any thing 
about it from the pulpit ; and so great was " the fer- 
ment in the town," that he deemed it "not best to 
preach upon the subject for the present." Reluctantly 
they consented that he might give his views through 
the press; and he set himself to the preparation of his 
" Humble Enquiry into the Rules of the Word of God 
concerning the Qualifications Requisite to a Complete 
Standing and Full Communion in the Visible Christian 
Church." While he was assiduously occupied in this 
labor, his people were laboring with equal assiduity to 
have the matter brought before a council for settle- 
ment, — rightly judging that nothing would be gained 
to their side of the question, by waiting for Mr. Ed- 
wards's " reasons." Reasons were what they were most 
afraid of.* 



* " The reason they aas&led, why they would not suffer him "to 
preach [on the subject], unfolds the actual state of their minds. It 
was, because they feared, thai his preaching v:ould make parlies in the 
tov:n. In other words, the great body of the people were united 



188 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

This being the state of affairs, no intelligent Congre- 
gationalists will doubt for a moment, that Mr. Edwards's 
idea of bringing it first before the church, was the true 
one. Perhaps they could settle the matter among 
themselves ; and then no council would be needed. 
According to Scripture, — certainly according to the 
Cambridge Platform, — this was the way to begin ; and, 
beginning thus, the first regular step would be for the 
pastor to state the reasons on which his proposal was 
founded ; and then for the church to consider them, weigh 
them, and act upon them by a formal vote of acceptance 
or rejection. If, after due consideration, it appeared that 
he and they could not walk together, it would be best 
for them to part. But before taking this final step, they 
should seek advice — not a judicial decision, but advice ; 
and here a council would properly come in. Mr. Ed- 
wards had all along proposed this measure, when, after 
taking the preliminary steps, their " affairs were suffi- 
ciently ripe " for it. But a false view of the appropriate 
functions of an ecclesiastical council had become prev- 
alent at that time, which has not been entirely cor- 
rected since. With all their repugnance to Mr. Ed- 
wards's principles, together with their manifest reluctance 
to be convinced that he was right and they were wrong, 
they would hardly have refused him a hearing on the 
subject, but for the mischievous notion that a Congre- 
gational council is a sort of church court, to which they 
could appeal and get a swift decision, without the 
hazard of encountering arguments. They knew very 
well that only two churches and three ministers through- 



against Mr. Edwards ; the leaders of the opposition were resolved on 
his dismission ; and they were afraid, if he should preach his senti- 
ments, that he would convince a large number of them that he was 
right, and thus, by making a party in his own favor, defeat the 
measure on which they were resolved. This was the same as to 
acknowledge that the people at large had not examined the ques- 
tion, and that, if they were to hear the*discourses of Mr. Edwards, 
so many of them would probably be led, by the force of argument, 
to embrace his side of the question in dispute, as to hazard the suc- 
cess of their measure." — Dwight's Life of Edwards, p. 44. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 189 

out the county (then comprising the present counties of 
Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden) were in sympathy 
with Mr. Edwards in the existing controversy about 
church qualifications. His condemnation, therefore, 
seemed almost certain, if the case should come before 
a council; and to make it quite certain, a vote was 
passed restricting both parties to that county in the 
selection of the members. This cruel and unconstitu- 
tional vote, at the remonstrance of the pastor, was so 
far modified as to allow him liberty to go out of the 
county for two of his half. In accounting for these 
tyrannical proceedings, it may here be stated that from 
beginning to end the parish took the lead, contrary to all 
rule and precedent. Yet the council, representing nine 
churches, when they came together, found no difficulty 
in proceeding to business, and bringing in the following 
result : first, " it is necessary that the relation between 
pastor and people be dissolved ; " second, " it is expedi- 
ent that this relation be immediately dissolved." No 
wonder that Mr. Edwards, in a letter soon after to Mr. 
Erskine of Scotland, who kindly inquired whether he 
could accept of a pastorate there under Presbyterian 
rule, expressed himself " perfectly out of conceit of our 
unsettled, independent, confused way of church-govern- 
ment in this land." Nothing could have been better 
adapted to create disgust for the whole system of Con- 
gregationalism, if this was indeed the " way " of it. 
But it was not; it was a perversion of that way, — as 
much so as the jugglery of " Elymas the sorcerer " was 
a perversion of " the right ways of the Lord," and was 
instigated by motives hardly less sinister. It w T as an 
ebullition of party prejudice, seeking vent through an 
ecclesiastical council. That event could never have 
happened, even under the blinding influence of party 
strife, had not ministers and churches, by looking at 
precedents more than principles, come to regard the 
functions of a council as judiciary rather than advisory. 
Edwards himself had lent his sanction to this mischief- 
making notion, in a controversy, about sixteen years 
before, respecting the settlement of Mr. Breck at Spring- 



190 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

field. A council was called " to advise," and, if thought 
proper, " to assist," in his ordination. They advised 
not to settle him, as, with their views of the case, they 
ought to have done. Here their responsibility ended, 
and they went home. The church and society saw fit 
to reject that advice, as they had a right to do, and 
called a second council, who ordained him. This was 
complained of by the first, as trampling on constituted 
authority, — which complaint only showed an existing 
usurpation of authority. With such views pervading 
the community, and gaining additional force by every 
new development of them, we ought not to wonder at 
the eagerness shown by Mr. Edwards's opposers to trust 
the decision of a council rather than to encounter his 
logic. A court of appeal will never want business. 
But the deplorable result in this case should .admonish 
us to keep these advisory bodies to their appropriate 
functions, and, as far as possible, to settle our ecclesias- 
tical disputes before the only tribunal recognized in the 
New Testament, or known to Congregationalists — the 
church. 



\ 



IX MASSACHUSETTS. 191 



CHAPTER XV. 

- 

1760-1770. 

Thirty-one churches organized. — Comparison of the several denominations 
in New England. — State of morals at the opening of the Kevolutionary war. 
— Christian doctrine and church polity at that time. — Outcropping of Uni- 
tarianism. — Probable reason why the Unitarian controversy did not then 
break forth. 

At the close of 1760, where the last chapter left this 
sketch, there were 262 Congregational churches in Mas- 
sachusetts. During the next ten years the following 
were added, namely : — 

In April, 1761, the church in Charlton was gathered, 
chiefly from the Oxford church, whose first pastor, Rev. 
Caleb Curtis, was ordained in October following. 

In 1762 these six were organized: — the church in Mon- 
son, June 23, from the Brimfield church, with Rev. 
Abishai Sabin for their pastor; the Fifth church in 
Newbury, some time in the summer, whose first and 
only pastor, Rev. Oliver Noble, was settled on the 1st 
of September ; the West church in Granby, a part of 
South Hadley, over which Rev. Simon Backus was or- 
dained in October ; the church in Shirley, a district of 
Groton, the exact date unknown, but probably June 
23, when the first pastor, Rev. Phineas Whitney, was 
settled ; the church in Dover, a colony from Dedham, 
November 7, which settled Rev. Benjamin Caryl the 
next week; the church in Feedinghills, West Spring- 
field, November 10 (the remains of a Baptist church 
gathered twenty years before), with Rev. Sylvanus 
Griswold for their first Congregational pastor, who was 
ordained on the 17th of the same month ; and the First 



192 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

or South church in Winchendon, December 16, under 
the pastoral care of Rev. Daniel Stimpson. 

On the 22d of February, 1763, the church in Ashfield 
was gathered, and Rev. Jacob Sherwin was ordained 
the same day. 

Four churches were planted in 1764: — the church in 
Pittsfield, February 7, whose first pastor, Rev. Thomas 
Allen, was settled March 5 ; the church in Lanesboro', 
March 28, over which Rev. Daniel Collins was or- 
dained, April 17 ; the Princeton church, an offshoot 
from Rutland, August 12, with Rev. Timothy Fuller 
for their pastor, who was not settled, however, till Sep- 
tember 9, 1767 ; and the church in Chesterfield, October 
30, whose first pastor, Rev. Benjamin Mills, was or- 
dained November 22. 

Three churches were gathered in 1765 : — the church in 
"Williamstown, probably in March, when Rev. Whitman 
Welch was settled over it; the church in Holland, a 
part of Brimfield, September 13, with Rev. Ezra Reeve 
for their pastor; and some time during the same year, 
the church in Richmond, though with no pastor till 
the settlement of Rev. Job Swift, D.D., in 1767. 

The two following arose in 1766 : — the Second church 
in Methuen, April 16, whose first pastor, Rev. Eliphaz 
Chapman, was not ordained till November, 1772 ; and 
the church in Royalston, October 13, which settled 
Rev. Joseph Lee, October 19, 1768. 

On the 28th of August, 1767, the church in Oakham 
was gathered from the Rutland church, and settled Rev. 
John Strickland, April 1, the year following; and the 
church in Paxton, September 3, which had Rev. Silas 
Biglow ordained over it October 21. 

In 1768 these four were planted : — the North church in 
Newburyport, some time in January, which settled Rev. 
Christopher Marsh the 19th of the following October ; 
the church in Fitchburg, June 27, whose members 
came chiefly from the Lunenburg church, and settled 
Rev. John Payson the same day ; the church in Conway, 
July 14, with Rev. John Emerson, who was ordained 
over it December 21 the year following; and some 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 193 

time during the same year, a church in the south part 
of Mendon, with Rev. Benjamin Balch for their pastor. 

In 1769, but on what particular date cannot be ascer- 
tained, the church in Lenox was constituted, and Rev. 
Samuel Monson was ordained on the 8th of November 
the next year ; also on the 20th of December the church 
in Chester, with Rev. Aaron Bascom for their pastor. 

These six were gathered in 1770: — the church in Hub- 
bardston, a colony from Rutland, February 14, which 
settled Rev. Nehemiah Parker, June 13; the church 
in Egremont, February 20, under the pastorship of 
Rev. Eliphalet Steele, who was ordained June 28 ; 
the church in Reading (Wood End, so called), February 
21, which settled Rev. Thomas Haven, November 
7 ; the church in Peru, sqme time in June, whose first 
pastor, however,, Rev. Stephen Tracy, was not ordained 
till April, 1772; the Third church in Roxbury (Jamaica 
Plain), December 11, with Rev. William Gordon for 
their pastor, who was settled July 6, 1772; and the 
church in Shelburn (exact date unknown), a colony 
from Deerfield, which settled Rev. Robert Hubbard, 
October 20, 1773. 

Before entering upon the period of the American 
Revolution, which we have now reached, and whose 
exciting scenes wrought such momentous changes in the 
subsequent course of events, both civil and ecclesiastical, 
let us pause a moment, and post up our ideas on a few 
points which may be of use to us hereafter, should we 
be disposed to make comparisons. 

The number of Congregational churches in Massa- 
chusetts at this date (1770) was 294. If to these we 
add eleven Episcopal, sixteen Baptist, and eighteen 
Quaker meetings, we have the entire ecclesiastical map 
of the province. No other sect or denomination had 
made its appearance in an organized form ; though it 
is to be presumed that in most of the towns there were 
not wanting those who belonged to neither of these 
religious orders, and may therefore properly be denom- 
inated nothingarians. In 1760, when the whole pop- 
ulation of New England was estimated at 500,000, 

13 



194 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

President Stiles supposed that this latter class numbered 
ten thousand, the Episcopalians 12,600, the Quakers 
sixteen thousand, and the Baptists twenty-two thousand, 
with a small sprinkling of Jews and Moravians ; leaving 
the Congregationalists about 440,000 strong; and the 
proportion of Congregationalists in Massachusetts was 
certainly not less than in New England at large; that 
is, seven times as many as all other denominations put 
together. From a valuable old manuscript register of 
ministers and churches, for 1762, found among the col- 
lections of the Congregational Library Association, and 
prepared with much pains and seeming accuracy, by an 
unknown hand, — containing a complete list of all the 
clergymen of each denomination in Massachusetts, with 
the date of their graduation and settlement, — it appears 
that four Baptist churches, five Episcopalian, and fifteen 
Congregational, were at that time vacant. In other 
words, nearly one half the Episcopalian churches, one 
quarter of the Baptist, and only about one twentieth of 
the Congregational, were destitute of stated preaching. 
These figures and facts have a significance in estimating 
the moral and religious forces — of which no adequate 
idea has yet been formed — that were brought into 
action in achieving our national independence. What- 
ever they were, their predominant element was Puritan 
Congregationalism. 

And this suggests an observation, that may properly 
come in here, touching the general state of morals at the 
time of which we speak. That there had been a falling 
off from the strictness which characterized the first set- 
tlers of New England can easily be believed. We 
have had occasion to notice and acknowledge this fact 
before. But he who derives his views solely from the 
lamentations of preachers and reformers, bewailing the 
" awful degeneracy and wickedness of the times," with- 
out keeping in mind the earlier standard of excellence 
from which they measure this degeneracy, will certainly 
be misled in his conclusions. As compared with our 
day, the moral sentiment of that age was of a lofty tone. 
Moral character, both public and private, was of a firmer 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 195 

texture; more fibrous; tougher to bear a sudden strain, 
to which honesty and honor, both in business and 
politics, are ever exposed. The affairs of life were pur- 
sued, not with less ardor, but with more seriousness ; 
and worldly pleasures had fewer votaries. Even recre- 
ation, aside from some useful employment, was spar- 
ingly indulged in. The first theatricals that Boston 
ever saw, were introduced by British soldiers, during the 
occupancy of the town by General Gage, at the opening 
of the Revolutionary war; and the building in which 
they were exhibited on Theatre Alley (hence the name) 
was torn down only a few years ago to make room for 
a more useful edifice. It is a suggestive fact, that our 
republic was founded before the theatre was thought of ;. 
while, in the last French Revolution, that of 1848, large 
sums were paid from the public treasury to keep the 
theatres of Paris open, as an auxiliary to the Republican, 
cause ; which, after all, ended in a miserable failure.. 
(Wonder if that infant republic might not have been> 
saved, if they had had our " Cradle of Liberty," in place 
of those theatres !) The case was very well put by the 
preacher of our late " Artillery Election sermon," Rev.. 
J. H. Means. " They were severe in spirit, but they 
had a severe work to do ; and men who loved pleasure 
could not have done it. If our fathers had laughed more,, 
we, perhaps, should have had cause to laugh less." 
These moral habits were the natural result of that relig- 
ious culture which each rising generation, from the first 
settlement of New England, had received from the pul- 
pit, the school-house, and the family fireside ; a culture 
which was kept up, even through periods of religious 
declension ; and which, by the force of honorable prece- 
dent and surrounding example, had a controlling influ- 
ence over those who were not religiously disposed. 

The particular phases of Christian doctrine and church 
polity which prevailed in these churches at the period 
we are now reviewing, deserve a brief notice. In a dis- 
course of 156 pages (including the appendix), preached 
in 1760, by President Stiles, at Bristol, R. I., before the 
" Convention of Congregational Ministers," from Phi- 



196 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

lippians 3 : 16, " Whereto we have already attained, let 
us walk by the same rule," etc., he sets forth, under 
fifteen distinct heads, "the fundamental principles of 
Christianity and ecclesiastical polity" in which he sup- 
posed the Congregational churches throughout New 
England generally agreed. As to theological points, 
he enumerates all the articles usually recognized in our 
day as belonging to the system of Calvinism, though 
with such explanatory and qualifying remarks as to 
suggest plainly enough the idea of differing shades of 
belief, or rather, different forms of stating their belief, 
on some few topics. In regard to ecclesiastical matters, 
embracing by far the most elaborate and instructive 
part of the sermon, he shows what ought to be the 
practice of our churches, in order to be consistent with 
their principles, rather than what actually, in all cases, 
was the practice ; and thereby indirectly points out sev- 
eral divergences from the old paths. For instance : 
after announcing as the thirteenth " principle " in which 
the Congregational churches of New England are gen- 
erally agreed, that "every voluntary Christian assembly 
have an inherent right, a power which ought neither to 
be surrendered nor controlled, of electing its own offi- 
cers," he goes on to say, that this power of the brother- 
hood is abridged and embarrassed, " when, in virtue of 
a public compact established among a body of churches, 
the churches in the vicinity have a negative on the pas- 
toral choice of a destitute congregation." Allusion is 
here made to the authority which was then claimed, not 
only by the consociations of Connecticut, but by many 
of the Ecclesiastical Councils of Massachusetts, to con- 
trol the churches in that matter, by interposing a neg- 
ative on their action. Another "fundamental principle" 
is laid down in the announcement and elucidation of 
his fourteenth head, thus : " Each individual church has 
the sole right of judging and determining its own con- 
troversies. Our churches, to the purposes of discipline, 
are so many distinct ecclesiastical sovereignties, in point 
of power and control, as independent of one another as 
the United Provinces of Holland, to purposes of civil 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 197 

government." In this connection he refers approvingly 
to John Wise's celebrated satire, " The Churches' 
Quarrel Exposed," and is heartily glad of its success in 
killing the " Proposals " of the Boston ministers for a 
consociation, near the beginning of the century. " It 
was early seen to be important," he adds, " that our 
churches should be consociated ; but whether for pur- 
poses of harmony only, or dominion, was as early the 
question." In his view, the former was the essential 
idea which the synod of 1662 had in mind when they 
recommended " consociating." And after quoting, in 
proof of it, their emphatic words, that " every church 
has full power and authority ecclesiastical within itself, 
regularly to administer all the ordinances of Christ, and 
is not under any other ecclesiastical jurisdiction what- 
ever," he pertinently remarks, " Subordinate to this 
fundamental principle is all to be interpreted in their 
answer " to the question about consociations. The dis- 
course of President Stiles was evidently a " tract for 
the times," and it produced its designed effect. It was 
a needed restraint upon the tendencies of the age 
towards the assumption of ecclesiastical power, than 
which no proclivity of poor human nature more needs 
to be checked. 

The outcropping of Unitarianism, which we had oc- 
casion to notice in the last decade, is also noticeable in 
this. The suspicions of President Edwards, touching 
the orthodoxy of Boston in 1757, were shared by Dr. 
Hopkins in 1768, as appears from the following passage 
in his autobiographical sketches, p. 95 : " In 1768, a ser- 
mon which I preached in the Old South meeting-house^ 
in Boston, was published at the desire of a number of 
the hearers." The title of it is, " The Importance and 
Necessity of Christians considering Jesus Christ in the 
Extent of his high and glorious Character." The text, 
Heb. 3:1. " It was composed with a design to preach 
it in Boston, as I expected soon to go there, under a 
conviction that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ 
was much neglected, if not disbelieved, by a number of 
the ministers in Boston." The following extract from 



198 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES * 

that sermon, taken in connection with this avowal of its 
design, shows that his discerning mind saw clearly, what 
it took other minds forty years longer to discover, 
namely, that the plan of salvation by Christ hinges on 
the doctrine of his proper deity, and that this doctrine 
was in danger of being discarded by some of the Boston 
ministers. " What then shall we say of those who ex- 
pressly deny the divinity of Christ, and represent him 
as no more than a mere creature? If they do not 
preach Christ who silently pass over this divine dignity 
and glory, infinitely the greatest and most essential part 
of his character, and without which there is nothing in 
his person and character that can be a reasonable ground 
of hope, support, and life to the true Christian, must not 
they who expressly deny that he is the true God, and 
consequently hold that he is only a mere creature, be 
justly looked upon and treated as preaching against 
Christ and perverting and overthrowing the whole gos- 
pel?" He even goes so far as to raise the question, 
" whether they who believe the divinity of Jesus Christ, 
and trust in him for pardon and salvation, may and 
ought to have charity for those, and look on them as 
good Christians, who expressly deny this doctrine.'' 
" How," he asks, " can these two walk together, who 
are so far from being agreed, that they oppose each 
other mo&t directly in the highest and most leading 
article of Christianity, in their infinitely different and 
opposite notions of the author of it, and which really 
comprises the whole ! " Aware that such views would 
be pronounced uncharitable by many, he repels the im- 
putation, and fortifies his position by citing " Paul, who, 
in the exercise of unquestionable charity, pronounced 
those accursed who preached another gospel, and told 
the Galatians that a mistake about the ground of the 
sinner's acceptance with God was fatal." . From a foot 
note added by the author, we learn that "ordaining 
councils " were beginning to " neglect the examination 
of candidates for the ministry, with respect to their re- 
ligious sentiments," and that individual ministers might 
be found who would "zealously oppose such exami- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 199 

nations." " The conduct of these gentlemen," he goes 
on to say, with more than his wonted warmth of feeling, 
" is really surprising, and none need to be at a loss what 
will be the fate of Christianity, so far as their influence 
reaches. All the distinguishing important doctrines of 
it will be neglected ; and instead of preaching the gos- 
pel, sermons will be either insipid dissertations upon 
something else, or filled with stupid inconsistence, or 
else be only florid harangues without any meaning." 

From these bold declarations, put forth designedly to 
counteract the disbelief of Christ's divinity which was 
known to exist among some of the Boston ministers, 
and from their publication by the request of others, we 
are prepared to expect a public controversy which will 
speedily bring about a better agreement, or a wider di- 
vergency of theological views, among the brother minis- 
ters of these sister churches. But other and very differ- 
ent events were just at hand, sufficiently engrossing to 
sink these differences out of sight; and the theological # 
controversy, which otherwise would doubtless have 
ensued at that time, was postponed for the space of 
forty years longer. The Revolutionary struggle, in 
which ministers and people of all denominations and 
of every theological type heartily fraternized under an 
overwhelming sense of common danger in working out 
a common destiny, imposed a truce on every other strife, 
and united all hearts in one single aim. This, on the 
whole, appears to be a more rational (certainly a more 
charitable) way of explaining the mysterious silence, 
than to impute it to studied concealment on the one 
side, or to cowardice on the other. 



200 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1770-1780 

Twenty-two churches gathered. — Six extinct churches. — Old usages becom- 
ing obsolete. — Ministers taking part in politics. — Election sermons. — 
Ministers in the army. — John Adams's testimony to their influence in secur- 
ing Independence. — Controversy between the Bolton church and their 
pastor. — Claim of the veto power by Rev. Mr. Goss. 

Only twenty-two Congregational churches sprang up 
in Massachusetts, during the period from 1770 to the 
close of the year 1780 ; and these arose in the following 
order : — 

Three were gathered in 1771 : — the church in Worth- 
ington, April 1, whose first pastor, Rev. Jonathan Hunt- 
ington, was ordained June 26 the same year; the church 
in Williamsburg, July 3, over which Rev. Amos Butler 
was settled July 14, 1773 ; and the church in Whately, 
August 12, with the Rev. Rufus Wells for their pastor, 
who was ordained September 25th following. 

Three were also gathered in 1772: — the church in 
Washington — exact date lost, but near the beginning 
of the yearr — with Rev. William G. Ballantine for 
their first minister, who was not ordained in the pas- 
toral office till June 15, 1774 ; the church in Windsor, 
at what time of the year not known, whose first pastor, 
Rev. David Avery, was ordained March 25, 1773 ; and 
the North church in Salem, July 19, over which Rev. 
Thomas Barnard, D. D., was settled July 13, the next 
year. 

On the 17th of August, 1773, the church in South- 
wick was constituted, and Rev. Abel Forward was 
ordained over it, on the 13th of October following — 
the only church gathered that year. 



m MASSACHUSETTS. 201 

The church in Leverett was gathered October 10, 
1774, and Rev. Henry Williams was installed the first 
pastor, November 10, 1784 ; also the church in Wendell, 
November 29, with Rev. Joseph Kilburn, settled Octo- 
ber 8, 1783. 

The South church in Salem seceded from the Taber- 
nacle, February 15, 1775, though the first pastor, Rev. 
Daniel Hopkins, D. D., was not settled till November 
18, 1778. 

In 1776, these two were planted: — the church in 
Auburn (then Ward), January 25, whose first pastor, 
Rev. Isaac Bailey, was not ordained till November 3, 
1784 ; and the church in Ashby, June 12, with Rev. 
Samuel Whitman for their minister, who was settled 
in the pastoral office some time in August, 1778. 

The church in Norwich (now Huntington) was 
organized in July, 1778, and Rev. Stephen Tracy was 
installed over it May 23, 1781 ; also the East church in 
Hawley, on the 16th of September, the same year, with 
Rev. Jonathan Grant for their pastor. 

In 1769, the following were gathered : — in Loudon 
(now a part of Otis) a small church, February 2, but 
never settled a pastor, and is absorbed in the present 
Otis church ; the church in Berlin, April 7, an offshoot 
from the Bolton church, which settled their first pastor, 
Rev. Reuben Puffer, D. D., September 26, 1781; the 
church in West Hampton, September 1, which ordained 
Rev. Enoch Hale on the 29th of the same month ; the 
church in Cummington, July 7, with Rev. James Briggs 
for their pastor, having had stated preaching for the 
space of twelve years previously ; and the church in 
Foxboro', November 25, with Rev. Thomas Kendall for 
their first pastor, whose ordination was not effected till 
May 25, 1786; and a church in Alford, with Rev. 
Joseph Avery for their pastor. 

The church in Goshen was organized December 21, 
1780, and the first pastor, Rev. Samuel Whitman, was 
installed January 10, 1788. The church in Lee was 
organized May 25 the same year, but had no pastor 
till the settlement of Rev. Elisha Parmalee, July 3, 
1783. 



202 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

It was during this period, namely, in 1774, that Uni- 
versalism was planted in Massachusetts by Rev. John 
Murray, who founded a church at Gloucester, and was 
subsequently settled in Boston. 

Adding these twenty-two churches to the 294 previ- 
ously gathered, would make the whole number on the 
ground, at this date, 316, were it not that six extinct 
churches are to be subtracted — those in Hull, Bel- 
lingham, the church which seceded from the First in 
Plymouth during the revival of 1744, the Second in 
Sandwich, Mr. Brett's church in Freetown, and the 
Second in Essex. The last settled minister in Hull was 
Rev. Samuel Veazie, who resigned the pastoral office 
in July, 1767, from which date the church declined 
through a rapid depopulation of the place till about 
1770, when it became extinct. The Congregational 
church in Bellingham survived till 1774, when the meet- 
ing-house, having long stood unoccupied, by reason of 
Baptist incursions, was demolished, and the few remain- 
ing members went into neighboring towns on the Sab- 
bath. The seceding church in Plymouth continued till 
1776, when the surviving members, diminished and dis- 
heartened, returned to the bosom of the church from 
which they went out. The Second church in Sand- 
wich, known as " the New-lights." returned to the First 
about 1769. Mr. Brett's congregation and church dis- 
banded in 1775. The Second in Essex was combined 
with the First, in 1774. Dropping these six, there re- 
main 310. 

The reader of these sketches must have noticed a 
gradual departure from the old way of church exten- 
sion in one particular, which, instead of being any 
longer a rule, has become a rare exception. Whereas 
it was almost uniformly the custom in early times to 
organize a church and settle a pastor the same day, 
who was as uniformly the minister under whose direc- 
tion they took the preparatory steps, we have reached 
the point where that custom no longer obtains. Several 
months, and sometimes years, intervene between the 
consummation of these two ecclesiastical acts. Had 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 203 

the object of this sketch allowed of greater detail, it 
would also have appeared that a change was coming on 
in the department of church building. In former times, 
the original proprietors, who were also the first settlers 
of townships, usually provided for this want, in connec- 
tion with the building of their own houses. It was 
now becoming a custom for the new-comers, who might 
or might not be the original purchasers or patentees of 
the soil, to defer the meeting-house question till the 
plantation was incorporated into a town, which was 
sometimes five, ten, and even twenty years after the 
first planters reached the spot. And although the war- 
rant for the first town meeting usually contained an 
article " to see if the town will take measures for build- 
ing a meeting-house, and hiring a minister," it often 
happened that the house of worship was suffered to 
linger for years (even till after a pastor was settled), 
before it was completed. Perhaps the first appropriation 
raised and covered the frame, within which the congre- 
gation worshipped for the season, sitting on carpenters' 
benches, and hearing the Gospel from a rough-board 
pulpit. Then came the glazing, — at least, for the 
lower part of the house, — the gallery windows being 
boarded up. In due time, as the people felt able, the 
building was glazed throughout, and plastered, and the 
pulpit put in, with its magnificent sounding-board hung 
over the minister's head, to the terror of weak nerves 
and the never-tiring gaze of children. Pew-building 
was undertaken variously. Sometimes it was included 
in the common charge, and then the pews were usually 
sold to the highest bidders. Sometimes the floor was 
u lotted out," that is, the aisles and location of each 
pew-lot were chalked on the floor, and a committee 
appointed to decide who should have the liberty to 
build for his family, a pew on lot No. 1, who on lot 
No. 2, etc. Sometimes the meeting-house was ten, 
twenty, and even twenty-five years from its foundation 
to its finish.* 

• The following extract, from "An Historical Sketch of Stur- 
bridge," affords a good illustration: "It appears that the house of 



204 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Let us not too hastily ascribe either of these depar- 
tures from the old way to a lack of zeal for the Lord's 
house, or a want of interest in his ministers. No doubt 
there had been a falling off' in both these particulars 
from the spirit of primitive times, as we have had fre- 
quent occasion to notice. But there were causes at 
work adequate to produce these effects, even among 
churches more pious than these were at the time of 
which we speak. It was not possible to fill the minis- 
terial ranks, thinned by death, and at the same time to 
provide a pastor for every new church as soon as 
organized. There was a growing scarcity of men in 
the ministerial profession. There was also a scarcity of 
means wherewith to support them, and to build meet- 
ing-houses. The country had but partially recovered 
from the impoverishing effects of the old French war, 
when she was plunged into tenfold deeper impoverish- 
ment by the drain made on her money and men — the 
products of her industry and the producers also — in 
the w r ar of the Revolution. The people were in the 



worship at first had no peivs, but was fitted up with temporary seats, 
each worshipper being at liberty to sit, or stand, wherever he could 
find a convenient place. At length there was inserted in the war- 
rant for a town meeting to be holden October 14, 1741, the following 
article, namely, i To see whether the town will lot out the room in 
the meeting-house under the galleries, and come into some measures 
to do and accomplish the same/ — an article which would be utterly 
unintelligible to us, were it not for the record of what was done with 
it. From that record it seems, that ' to lot out the room ' was neither 
more nor less than to divide it into squares of convenient size for 
pews. The town readily came into the measure, and voted that 
these several lots should be assigned to as many heads of families ; 
and whoever received a lot should have the privilege of building a 
pew thereon, and of occupying it with his family during the time of 
his natural life ; that if he left a widow she should enjoy the same 
privilege ; and that on her decease the pew should revert to the 
town, the town paying the original cost of building it. The business 
of making the assignment was committed to three men with the fol- 
lowing instructions : — ' to have due regard to age ; to the first be- 
ginning in town ; to their bearing charges in town, and to their use- 
fulness ; and to dispose of the room for pews to such persons as they 
shall think fit/ The committee, it will be seen, was intrusted with a 
business no less delicate than to make out a scale of merit for the 
town" 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 205 

camp, and many of the ministers were there with them, 
to inspire the living and to console the dying. And 
those who tarried at home had more than they could do 
to succor those who went. Nothing but a high appre- 
ciation of religious ordinances could have prompted 
the oppressed people of Massachusetts to plant so many 
churches, and settle so many pastors, and to put up 
even the frames of so many meeting-houses, as we 
have found during this distressing period. 

And here it would savor of ignorance or affectation, 
to pass over, unnoticed, the patriotic and self-denying 
spirit which animated the ministers of these Congrega- 
tional churches throughout this struggle. The ministers 
of other dencfrninations, as a general thing, were not 
wanting in the same spirit; but they were compara- 
tively few in number, and exerted a proportionably 
feeble influence. If any are disposed to think that they 
departed too far from their proper vocation as preachers 
of the Gospel, and took too lively an interest in the ex- 
citing political events of the day, perhaps something 
may be pardoned to their respect for the line of succes- 
sion in which they found themselves standing. Unques- 
tionably, the key-note of Republican freedom was first 
struck on these shores, 

" When the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free," 

as a fraternity of churches were settling the void wastes 
of New England, under the lead of ministers who had 
the shaping of all their opinions, social and religious, 
civil and ecclesiastical, an hundred and fifty years 
before the grand chorus of that song resounded from 
thirteen United States. The pastors of 1776 knew, 
and could appreciate the fact, that Rev. John Cotton's 
" Judicials " were the only civil code in the colony till 
it was superseded by Rev. Nathaniel Ward's " Body of 
Liberties;" that Rev. John Elliot and Rev. John Wise, 
for inciting their people to stand fast in those liberties, 
were punished, the one by a public reprimand, and the 
other by imprisonment and fine; in short that they 



206 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

themselves were occupying pulpits every Sabbath day, 
which, from the first, had been occupied by pastors 
who were uniformly the aiders and abettors, if not the 
instigators, of all previous attempts to put down op- 
pression and promote liberty. They could hardly be 
true to their sacred trust, as that trust was then inter- 
preted, without giving countenance and encouragement 
to the cause of freedom, both by preaching and prac- 
tice. 

As to preaching, there is scarcely a parish in New 
England where there does not exist some authentic 
story of what the minister of that day said, in sermon 
or prayer, by way of exhorting the people to resist the 
invasion of their rights, and calling on God to confound 
or cut off their invaders. The Thanksgiving and Fast- 
day sermons which have been preserved, abound in 
patriotic appeals of the most pointed character. Even 
the Sabbath services were not unfrequently spiced with 
the same, as appears by running the eye over a large 
collection of manuscript sermons of that date, gathered 
up by the Congregational Library Association. In one 
of these, by Rev. Ebenezer Chaplin, of Millbury (then 
the second parish in Sutton), the preacher has stitched 
into the middle of his discourse, as the appendix to a 
head after it was finished, an item of news, which, he 
tells his audience, come to hand the evening previous, — 
"that General Burgoyne, with his entire army of 5,752 
men and 5,000 stands of arms, surrendered to our brave 
troops under General Gates, on the 18th inst," — with 
sundry other particulars of the war and reflections 
thereon. 

The election sermon, throughout this period, was a 
clear exposition of the divine law, in its application to 
human governments and human governors ; civil rights 
and civil wrongs ; and the religious obligations of all 
classes to uphold the one and to crush out the other. 
The reader of these sermons at the present time will 
be startled at the boldness of speech, and the senatorial 
spirit, displayed by the preacher, if he fails to call up 
the circumstances which surrounded him, or forgets 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 207 

that he was appointed to that office for that very pur- 
pose. And we may venture to say, that no governor's 
message, in our day, has half the effect in giving tone 
and direction to public sentiment on political questions, 
that went along with the election sermon in those times. 
When Rev. William Gordon, of Roxbury (Jamaica 
Plain), in performing that service on the 19th of July, 
1775, before announcing his text, professes his " zeal for 
the cause of liberty," and bespeaks "the most candid 
allowances from so respectable an audience, as oft as 
my knowledge is surpassed by my zeal, considering that 
the last should predominate, now that the times call 
for vigorous, unabating exertions," one needs to remem- 
ber that the battle smoke has but just rolled away from 
Bunker Hill, and that Boston is still in possession of 
British troops. In view of such surroundings, who 
thinks of stopping to criticize his zeal, or even of with- 
holding his assent from the glowing utterance which 
that zeal prompts him to give in these warm words 
near the close of his discourse : " We should certainly 
rebel against the sovereign of the universe in his prov- 
idential dispensations, and reject the divine counsel 
communicated to us by that medium, did we not resolve 
to persist in our present opposition to the wicked designs 
of an arbitrary ministry." 

But when, on the next election day, we see the calm, 
philosophic, and rather phlegmatic Samuel West, of 
Dartmouth, going up into the pulpit to perform that 
service, we feel pretty sure that we shall hear nothing 
of a " zeal without knowledge " to-day ; no gusts of ex- 
cited feeling against tyrants, either in the government 
or out of it, will fan the flame of political excitement. 
And when we hear him read for his text, in a low 
monotone, " Put them in mind to be subject to prin- 
cipalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready 
to every good work," we wonder if the " Honorable 
Council," in appointing him for such an office, at 
such a time, have not mistaken their man. But let us 
hear what he has to say. He is announcing his sub- 
ject: "In order that we may form a right judgment 



208 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

of the duty enjoined in our text, I shall consider the 
nature and design of the civil government, and shall 
show that the same principles which cfblige us to sub- 
mit to government do equally oblige us to resist ty- 
ranny ; or that tyranny and magistracy are so opposite 
to each other, that where the one begins the other ends. 
I shall then apply the present discourse to the grand 
controversy, that at this day subsists between Great 
Britain and the American colonies." The discriminat- 
ing and profoundly learned discussion which follows, in 
a sermon of seventy pages, might be ranked with the 
political writings of Philip Sidney and John Milton, — 
all which is "applied to the grand controversy," in 
burning sentences like these : u It would be highly 
criminal not to feel a due resentment against such 
tyrannical monsters." " It is an indispensable duty, 
my brethren, which we owe to God and our country, 
to rouse up and bestir ourselves, and being animated 
with a noble zeal for the sacred cause of liberty, to 
defend our lives and fortunes, even to the shedding the 
last drop of blood : " " We must beat our ploughshares 
into swords, and our pruning-hooks into spears, and 
learn the art of self-defence against our enemies:" — 
" Providence seems plainly to point out to us the expe- 
diency, and even necessity, of our considering ourselves 
as an independent state:" (this was said about five 
weeks before the declaration -of independence by the 
continental congress). He closes his fervid appeal by 
calling on his " fathers and brethren to teach their hear- 
ers the duty they owe to magistrates ; to show them 
the difference between liberty and licentiousness ; and 
while animating them to oppose tyranny and arbitrary 
power, to inculcate upon them the duty of yielding due 
obedience to lawful authority," — in order to which, 
says he, " we should thoroughly study the law of na- 
ture, the rights of mankind, and the reciprocal duties 
of governors and governed." These election sermons 
were usually printed in large editions, and circulated 
among the people as " The Documents" are now, when 
great questions of state policy are pending. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 209 

The following extract from a discourse " preached on 
the eve of the battle of Brandywine, September, 1777, 
by Rev. Jacob Promt (probably not a New England 
minister), to a large portion of the American soldiers, 
in the presence of Gen. George Washington and Gen. 
"Wayne," is not more remarkable for its glowing patriot- 
ism than for its prophetic words. " They that take the 
sword shall perish by the sword," is the text; and after 
a graphic description of the outrages committed by 
those who have taken the sword against these inoffend- 
ing colonies, he proceeds : " Brethren, think me not un- 
worthy of belief, w T hen I tell you that the doom of the 
Britisher is near. Think me not vain when I tell you, 
that beyond the cloud that now enshrouds us, I see 
gathering, thick and fast, the darker cloud and the 
blacker storm of Divine retribution. They may con- 
quer us on the morrow ! Might and wrong may pre- 
vail, and we may be driven from the field — but the 
hour of God's own vengeance will come ! Aye, if in 
the vast solitudes of eternal space, in the heart of the 
boundless universe, there throbs the being of an aw T ful 
God, quick to avenge, and sure to punish guilt, then 
will the man, George of Brunswick, called king, feel in 
his brain and his heart, the vengeance of the Eternal 
Jehovah! A blight will be upon his life — a withered 
brain, and accursed intellect ; a blight will be upon his 
children and upon his people. Great God ! how r dread 
the punishment ! " The prayer which followed this ser- 
mon has also been preserved, and contains petitions like 
these : " O God of mercy, we pray thy blessing on 
the American arms. Make the man of our hearts strong 
in thy wisdom ; bless, we beseech thee, with renewed 
life and strength, our hope, and thy instrument, even 
George Washington. Shower thy counsels upon the 
honorable continental congress; visit the tents of our 
host, comfort the soldier in his wounds and afflictions 
— nerve him for the fight — prepare him for the hour of 
death. Teach us to be merciful. Though the memory 
of galling wrongs be in our hearts, and knocking for 
admittance, and they may fill us with desire to revenge, 

14 



210 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

yet let us, O Lord, spare the vanquished, though they 
never spared us. In the hour of death, do thou guide 
us into the abode prepared for the blest; so shall we 
return thanks unto thee, through Christ our Redeemer. 
God prosper the cause, AmenP 

The practice of these divines was fully up to their 
preaching and praying. Aside from their uncomplain- 
ing and even cheerful spirit with which they submitted 
to privations of domestic comfort, — giving up a portion 
of their salaries in many cases, and working with their 
own hands to subsist their families, that the people of 
their charge might be encouraged to bear the crushing 
burdens of the war, — there were not wanting acts of a 
more positive and forth-putting heroism among the 
ministers. A few instances, gathered without search, 
from authentic sources nearest at hand, must suffice for 
illustration. In September, 1774, the town of Stur- 
bridge voted "to provide four half barrels of powder, 
five cwt. of lead, and five hundred flints," as a donation 
to the public service. At another meeting, held a month 
later, the selectmen were instructed to provide still more 
ammunition. On this occasion, Rev. Joshua Paine, 
pastor of the Congregational church, "came forward, 
and proposed to pay for one cask of powder himself, if 
the town would be at the trouble of procuring it." 
Whereupon a Baptist deacon, in the absence of his 
minister, became responsible for bullets to match. The 
powder, as that article then sold, came to just one fifth 
of Mr. Paine's annual salary. (Town Records.) 

Rev. Thomas Allen, first pastor of the church in Pitts- 
field, served as chairman of the " committee of corre- 
spondence," which every town appointed at the opening 
of hostilities. He also served as chaplain in the army 
at White Plains, Ticonderoga, and Bennington, to 
which last-named place he marched with a company 
composed partly of his own parishioners ; and after fer- 
vent prayer in presence of the army on the morning of 
the battle, he joined the ranks by the side of his brother, 
telling him, "Joseph, you load and I will fire." On 
being asked, after the battle, how many he killed, he 



.IN MASSACHUSETTS. 211 

said he could not tell, but expressed the hope that he 
had prevented some from being killed ; " for, observing 
a flash often repeated in a bush near by, which seemed 
to be succeeded by the fall of some one of our men, I 
levelled my musket, and firing in that direction, put out 
that flash." 

A large number of the ministers became chaplains 
for longer or shorter periods, throughout the Revolution;; 
and those who did not thus go to the war themselves, 
encouraged their people to go. The case of Rev. Sam- 
uel Eaton, settled near Brunswick, Me., may be cited 
as a representative case. While the British were plun- 
dering and burning the towns along the seaboard, a 
recruiting officer came into his parish on the Sabbath, 
just before meeting. Knowing Mr. Eaton's patriotic 
sentiments, he called on him for help. This was 
promptly declined, but with an intimation that after 
sundown (the Puritan Sabbath being then over), if he 
would attend his evening lecture, he might afford him 
some aid. That evening his discourse was founded on 
Jeremiah 48 : 10, " Cursed be he that doeth the work of 
the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back 
his sword from blood." Within an hour from the close 
of the third service, forty men of that congregation were 
marching toward the scene of conflict. 

Such was the preaching, and such the practice, 
throughout New England, with but here and there an 
exception. And it was on the knowledge of such facts 
that the opinion of the elder President Adams was 
founded, which he expressed to a French statesman, 
that American independence was mainly due to the 
clergy ; that their well-known devotion to the cause of 
liberty, and the habitual deference paid to their opinions, 
imbued all ranks and classes with one common senti- 
ment of resistance to oppression. The acknowledgment 
of this power was freely and emphatically made in the 
provincial congress of 1774 at Concord, with John Han- 
cock at its head, when a circular letter was sent forth 
to the ministers, begging that they would interpose to 
prevent " this dreadful slavery," as they termed the out- 



212 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

rageous acts of parliament. Testimony bearing on the 
same point exists in the fact referred to in a previous 
chapter, that the writings of Rev. John "Wise on Con- 
gregational church-government — eminently democratic 
in spirit and argument — were republished by subscrip- 
tion in 1772, sixty years after the last previous edition, 
and almost wholly by laymen, who were prominent in 
the struggle for freedom. 

As may well be supposed, the religious and ecclesi- 
astical interests of these churches, except so far as in- 
volved in the all-engrossing question of civil freedom, 
received but little attention throughout this period. 
The more devout members, male and female, we can 
easily believe, were driven nearer to the throne of grace. 
Frequent days of fasting and prayer were appointed. 
Preachers, especially those who had begun to be desig- 
nated as evangelical, were often searching out the causes 
of God's displeasure against the land, and setting them 
forth "for a lamentation." But controversial questions 
seldom came up, and soon subsided. The only ripple 
that we notice in ecclesiastical affairs, arose in Worces- 
ter county, on this wise : the church in Bolton be- 
coming disaffected towards their pastor, Rev. Thomas 
Goss called him to account for his alleged misconduct. 
No satisfaction being obtained, the case was submitted 
to a succession of councils, whose results proved equally 
unsatisfactory. After several years spent in fruitless 
efforts to adjust the differences between the pastor and 
people, the church took it upon them to dissolve the 
pastoral relation without the advice of an ecclesiastical 
council, and even against the advice of several neigh- 
boring ministers. Whereupon the controversy took a 
wider range, involving the entire ministerial association 
with which Mr. Goss was connected. Attempts were 
made to prevent the Bolton church from settling another 
minister, and even to get them disfellowshipped by 
other churches. Narratives of the troubles, and counter 
narratives were put forth ; pamphlets were published and 
reviewed. Rev. Zabdiel Adams, of Lunenburg, was chief 
champion on the one side, and a racy writer, who signed 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 213 

himself " A Neighbor," earned that title on the other. 
At length the convention of Congregational ministers, 
at their meeting in May, 1773, issued a document of 
twenty-one pages, entitled " Observations upon the 
Congregational plan of church-government, particularly 
as it respects the choice and removal of such officers." 
Although the Bolton case is not named, these " Obser- 
vations " are confined to the discussion of matters in- 
volved therein. 

All this would hardly warrant the space here given 
to the subject, but for one or two important principles 
of church polity which came into debate. The right of 
a pastor to negative the votes of his church was claimed 
by Mr. Goss, and defended in a published pamphlet by 
Mr. Adams, — a figment of prelatic power so completely 
cut in pieces by the dissecting knife of " A Neighbor," 
that we wonder how any pastor could afterwards think 
of patching it up, as sometimes has been attempted in 
our day. Another point in the discussion was the ne- 
cessity of ecclesiastical councils, in settling and dis- 
missing ministers, which resolved itself into the question 
whether there is a binding force in their decisions, inde- 
pendent of their acceptance by the churches, — or rather 
whether it be decision, or only advice, that comes out 
in their results. It would be amusing, were it only less 
annoying to the peace of the churches, to mark the 
many attempts that have been made to attach a cum- 
bersome judiciary to our simple form of church-govern- 
ment, by erecting our fraternal councils into ecclesi- 
astical courts, — attempts necessarily abortive, because 
inherently repugnant to that first principle of Congre- 
gationalism which secures every church against the 
jurisdiction of every other. In this controversy, how- 
ever, those who advocated the indispensableness of 
councils, and the binding force of their decisions, suc- 
ceeded in getting their views adopted by the " Convention 
of Congregational ministers," and published in a pam- 
phlet, with their imprimatur. But the spirit of liberty 
was too wide awake at that time, to bear the yoke thus 
laid upon the necks of the people, and it was indignantly 



214 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

thrown off u Where were these liberty plunderers 
convened ? " asks a nervous reviewer of the con- 
vention's pamphlet. " Why, they say, at Boston ! Is 
Boston, that metropolis of liberty for these many years 
past, become a den of liberty plunderers? O, Boston, 
will you exert yourself so against m-n-stry, p-rl-m-nt, 
g-v-rn-s, etc., for your civil liberties, and yet suffer your 
religious liberties, which solely moved your fathers to 
come over into this land — will you suffer that most sa- 
cred birthright to be sacked by those in your own bowels ? 
I hope better things of you, and that, ere this time, you 
have sent a hue and cry after them. Something must 
be done. If the churches do not rouse up and protest 
against it, in less than half a century it will be urged as 
of great authority ; as being a fundamental book of the 
constitution — this convention pamphlet." The result 
of the discussion was a general acquiescence in the old 
doctrine of the Cambridge platform, that councils, 
" though not absolutely necessary to the being, yet 
many times, through the iniquity of men, and perverse- 
ness of times, necessary to the well-being of churches, 
for the establishment of truth and peace therein," — 
" not to decide and determine authoritatively, but to ad- 
vise the church how to decide and determine ; " and that 
this advice " should have just so much force as there is 
force in the reason of it." 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 215 



CHAPTER XVII. 

1780-1790. 

Gathering of twenty-two churches. — Disastrous effects of the Eevolutionary 
war on the churches. — Rise of Universalists in Massachusetts. — First 
Roman Catholic church. — Unitarianism in King's Chapel. — Third article 
in the Bill of Rights. — Congregational Charitable Society incorporated. 

Notwithstanding the drainage on Massachusetts 
money and men by the Revolutionary war, the follow- 
ing twenty-four churches were organized within her 
bounds during the ten years from 1780 to 1790. 

In 1781 these four arose : — the church in Carlisle, 
February 28, whose first pastor, Rev. Paul Litchfield, 
was ordained on .the 7th of the next November; the 
Second or West church in Newton, October 21, over 
which Rev. William Greenough was settled, November 
8 of the same year ; the Second, or West church in 
Granville, November 17, which had no pastor till the 
settlement of Rev. Aaron J. Booge in 1786 ; and prob- 
ably the church in Rowe, though Rev. Preserved 
Smith, the first pastor, was not ordained till 1787. 

Three churches were gathered in 1782: — the church 
in Northbridge, June 6, which settled Rev. John Crane, 
D. D., on the 25th of June the next year ; the Second, 
or East church in Amherst, November 28, which had no 
pastor till the ordination of Rev. Ichabod Draper, Janu- 
ary 25, 1785 ; and probably in the autumn of the same 
year (1782) the church in Orange (North), with Rev. 
Emerson Foster for their pastor, who was installed on 
the succeeding 12th of December. 

In 1783, two churches were organized: — the church 
in Brighton, February 26, over which Rev. John Fos- 
ter, D. D., was ordained November 1 of the next year ; 



216 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

and the church in Middlefield, November 18, whose first 
pastor was Rev. Jonathan Nash, ordained October 31, 
1792. 

The church in Boxboro' was gathered April 29, 1784, 
and settled Rev. Joseph Willard, November 2, the year 
following. 

In 1785, seven churches were constituted : — the church 
in Dalton, February 16, from the Pittsfield church, with 
Rev. James Thompson for their first pastor, who was 
not ordained till March, 1795 ; the present church in 
Heath, April 15, over which Rev. Joseph Strong was 
ordained October 27, 1790, (for though a Congrega- 
tional church had existed from 1767 within the present 
limits of the town, and had Rev. Jonathan Leavitt for 
its pastor, it was disbanded at the close of his ministry 
in 1785, just before or at the time that Heath was sep- 
arated from Charlemont) ; the church in Buckland, 
October 8, which settled Rev. Josiah Spaulding, Octo- 
ber 15, 1794 ; the church in Phillipston, November 16, 
a colony from Templeton, over which Rev. Ebenezer 
Tucker was ordained November 5, 1788 ; the church in 
East Hampton, November 17, which settled Rev. Pay- 
son Williston their first pastor, August 13, 1789 ; the 
Second church in Worcester, a secession from the First, 
December 1, with Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D. D., who was 
ordained the succeeding 1st of February ; and at some 
unknown day of the same year the Second or South 
church in Wilbraham, which settled Rev. Moses War- 
ren, September 3, 1788. 

These two arose in 1786: — the church in Gardner, 
February 1, over which Rev. Jonathan Osgood was 
ordained October 19, 1791 ; and the church in Plain- 
field, August 31, with Rev. Moses Hallock for their first 
pastor, who was settled July 11, 1792. 

The present First church in Charlemont dates from 
June 6, 1788, though as before intimated (see Heath) a 
church was gathered in 1767, which, after years of con- 
tention with their minister, Rev. Jonathan Leavitt, — 
partly doctrinal, partly political, and partly financial, — 
was broken up in 1785. Rev. Isaac Babbitt was the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 217 

first pastor of the newly organized church, who was 
settled February 24, 1796. 

The four following were gathered in 1789: — the 
church in West Stockbridge, June 4, 1789, with Rev. 
Oliver Ayers for their pastor, ordained May 29, 1793 ; 
the church in Tyngsboro', November 30, which settled 
Rev. Nathaniel Lawrence, January 6, the next year ; the 
church in Ludlow, but the day of organization is not 
known, over which Rev. Antepas Steward was ordained 
November 27, 1793 ; and the church in Enfield, though 
at what precise date cannot be stated, unless we as- 
sume December 2, when the first pastor, Rev. Joshua 
Crosby, was settled over it. 

In addition to the ordinary process of church exten- 
sion here described, there came upon the people a 
heavy load of labor and expense, in rebuilding altars 
broken down by the ravages of war, and in restoring 
the suspended means of grace. But nowhere did this 
extra burden fall so heavily as on Boston and its vicin- 
ity. While the battle of Bunker Hill was raging at its 
height, the ancient sanctuary in Charlestown, with more 
than three hundred dwellings, over which, from its ele- 
vated position, it seemed to keep guard, were reduced 
to ashes, whereby two thousand persons were also 
reduced to poverty and exile. While Boston was in 
possession of the British, " the Old North meeting- 
house and above one hundred other large wooden build- 
ings were taken down and distributed for firewood. 
The Old South was transformed into a riding-school. 
Hollis street, Brattle street, the West, and the First 
Baptist meeting-houses were occupied as hospitals or 
barracks." (Snow's Hist. Bost. p. 310.) The Sabbath 
worship in these places, as a matter of course, was 
broken up. In fact, all the pastors who were friendly 
to the American cause, except Dr. Samuel Mather and 
Dr. Andrew Eliot, had left during the siege. The 
clergymen of the three Episcopal churches fled with 
General Howe on the memorable 17th of March, 1776, 
and Dr. Byles of Hollis street was dismissed in 1777, 
on account of his supposed predilection for the regal 



218 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

cause. Mr. Morehead's church on Federal street was 
vacant, and Mr. Cros well's meeting-house (School 
street) was untenantable. 

From this disastrous state of the Boston churches, 
recovery was necessarily slow ; indeed, a complete res- 
toration was never effected. The Old North having 
lost their meeting-house, and the New Brick their pas- 
tor (Dr. Pemberton, who died September 15, 1777), 
the two were merged into one under the pastorship of 
Rev. John Lathrop, D. D., who had been settled over 
the former since 1768 ; and the united church was num- 
bered the " Second," retaining the date of the Old 
North. In 1765, on the decease of Dr. Samuel Mather, 
the remains of his church were also merged in this 
Second, according to his dying request ; and their de- 
serted meeting-house was sold the same year to the 
first society of Universalists, who shortly after settled 
Rev. John Murray. Still another Congregational church 
disappeared from Boston in 1785, — the one known as 
Andrew CroswelPs, which had never been in full sym- 
pathy with the others. Immediately after the death of 
Mr. C, the church disbanded, and their place of wor- 
ship in School street, originally built and tised by a 
congregation of French Protestants, came into posses- 
sion of the Catholics. This was their first place of 
worship in New England. The Abbe La Poitrie, a 
chaplain in the French navy, being at Boston on his 
way home after the war closed, gathered the few 
French and Irish residents then here, and laid the foun- 
dation of what has since become " The Church of the 
Holy Cross " on Franklin street. 

This last makes the sixth religious denomination that 
got established in Massachusetts ; and their compara- 
tive strength, as indicated by the number of churches 
connected with each, at the close of the Revolution, 
may be stated thus: — Roman Catholics, one ; Univer- 
salists, three ; Quakers, six ; Episcopalians, eleven ; 
Baptists, sixty-eight; Congregationalists, three hundred 
and thirty. This enumeration of the Congregational 
churches excludes the three in Boston that were crushed 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 219 

out by the war, and Rev. Mr. Noble's in Newburyport, 
which disbanded soon after his removal in 1784. 

But the extinction of churches was not the only nor 
the worst calamity that the war of the Revolution 
inflicted on the cause of religion and morals. We 
have already had occasion to notice how the perils into 
which the country was thrown, and the political excite- 
ments incident thereto, engrossed all hearts, and, for the 
time being, swallowed up all other concerns. We have 
also seen how zealously the ministers of the Gospel 
enlisted in this struggle for life and liberty. " Perhaps 
no class of citizens were more deeply interested " — 
certainly none felt a heavier responsibility, or discharged 
it with more fidelity. " By their prayers, their sermons, 
their conversation, influence, and example, they endeav- 
ored to the utmost to sustain the courage of the citi- 
zens, and secure the deliverance of their bleeding coun- 
try. This course of procedure was regarded at the 
time as necessary, and in many points of view it was 
highly commendable ; yet it could not but have with- 
drawn the minds of the clergy, and, through them, of 
their people, from the great concerns of religion and the 
soul." (Spirit Pilg. Vol. II. p. 178.) Add to this the 
large number of young men withdrawn from the pur- 
suits of honest industry to a military life, — liberated 
from all Sabbath and sanctuary restraints, to be asso- 
ciated with unprincipled foreigners, schooled from their 
youth to despise sacred things, and laugh at the Bible, 
and live a vicious life — and it will not appear strange, 
however deplorable, that the war should have brought 
into New England a flood of corruptions and errors in 
life and doctrine, to which no ordinary means of grace 
would present a barrier, — still less when these means, 
in their actual appliance, were weakened much below 
their ordinary force. And then this irreligious tendency 
would naturally " increase unto more ungodliness," in 
the full tide of commercial prosperity and increasing 
wealth that flowed in upon the new-born republic 
through the same friths and channels. The desecration 
of the Sabbath, the neglect of the sanctuary, and a dis- 



220 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

position to cavil at the teachings of the Bible as an 
antiquated book, prevailed to an alarming extent ; and 
in not a few of our New England towns, which it would 
be easy though invidious to name, some of the last 
vestiges of Puritanism seem to have been irrevocably 
effaced at that time. 

It was at this epoch in our religious history that the 
first open avowal of Unitarianism was made in Massa- 
chusetts — not among the Congregationalists, however, 
but the Episcopalians! As this event has an impor- 
tant relation to the subsequent development of that 
system in our own denomination, it deserves a brief 
notice. 

When the British troops evacuated Boston in 1776, 
all the Episcopal ministers, as before remarked, and 
many of their people, took passage with them. Relig- 
ious service being thus suspended in their churches, 
King's Chapel was occupied by the Old South con- 
gregation for the space of five years, while the desola- 
tions of their own house were being repaired. At 
length, in 1782, as they were about to vacate the 
chapel, the few remaining proprietors determined to 
restore their former mode of worship, and employed 
Rev. James Freeman as reader. At the end of three 
years, during which time the authorized (Trinitarian) 
liturgy and prayerbook were used, he succeeded, not 
without opposition, in substituting a revised ritual, after 
the plan of Dr, Samuel Clark, excluding all recognition 
of the Trinity. As yet Dr. Freeman had not received 
ordination. After several unsuccessful attempts to ob- 
tain it in a canonical way, he "was ordained as rector, 
priest, etc., by the wardens, vestry, proprietors, and con- 
gregation of the chapel, by virtue of the third article in 
the declaration of rights," (Snow's Hist. Boston, 338)— 
if any one can tell what virtue there was in that article 
to accomplish, or even to countenance that act. The 
senior warden " laid one hand on him, and with the 
other delivered him the Bible, enjoining him to make 
that sacred book the rule of his faith and conduct." — 
(Lindsey's Vindi. 35.) 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 221 

On this transaction an able writer in the Spirit of the 
Pilgrims (Vol. II. 290) remarks, — " Must we not con- 
clude, that, had Dr. Freeman fallen into some Congre- 
gational churches, instead of an Episcopal one, where 
he could have modified his worship without attracting 
public attention, and been ordained without examina- 
tion, his Unitarianism would have been as closely con- 
cealed, as that of any of his contemporary brethren? 
But the liturgy of the church of England stood directly 
in his way." The implication here is, that other min- 
isters in Boston held the same views, but not being 
under the same necessity to avow them, practised con- 
cealment. It may be that Dr. Freeman's course would 
have been less open and- bold had the worship in his 
congregation been disencumbered from the liturgy. 
But there is nothing to show that his "contemporary 
brethren " would have taken his course, had they been 
in his place. He was evidently far in advance of any 
others. Those Congregational ministers who subse- 
quently professed his sentiments, were not, at this time, 
sufficiently " ripe for so great a change," — to use his 
own words to Mr. Lindsey, in describing the public 
sentiment of Boston. Instead of studying concealment, 
we may suppose that they professed as far as they be- 
lieved. This supposition, while it leans to the side of 
charity, accords with a known characteristic of Ameri- 
can Unitarianism, from its rise among us, till a com- 
paratively recent date, namely, to ignore the evangelical 
system, rather than acknowledge its opposite ; to deny^ 
rather than affirm^ in its discussions of doctrinal truth. 
This trait, whether it be a trick of concealment or not, 
cannot properly be fathered on Unitarianism, as it at- 
tached to a certain class of our ministers before Unita- 
rianism had a name or a being among us. As early as 
1722, Cotton Mather, in his Convention sermon, com- 
plained that certain theological topics, known in our 
day as the doctrines of grace, were " threatened with a 
sentei ce of banishment from some churches." Twenty 
years later Mr. Foxcroft expressed his conviction that 
the same doctrines, " though frequently touched upon," 



222 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

were slurred over in the sermons of many preachers 
around him, and " generally not allowed their due con- 
sideration." Indeed, when considered historically, it 
will appear that the habitual neglect of these doctrines 
as n essential, or their avoidance as unwelcome (not 
their denial as unsafe or untrue), in the discourses of 
reputedly Orthodox divines, was the necessary cause of 
that defection from the faith which will be developed in 
future chapters of this sketch. But as yet we find no 
visible and avowed Unitarianism in Massachusetts out- 
side of this one Episcopal church, — a fact, by the way, 
not suited to strengthen our confidence in the polity 
and ritual of that church, as a defence against errors in 
doctrine, or disorders in practice. 

The new constitution which the State adopted in 
1780, w T hile it liberated each religious sect from all sub- 
ordination to any other, left the old law of taxation for 
the support of ministers in full force. This was stren- 
uously resisted by the Baptists. They held conven- 
tions; they memorialized the legislature; they ap- 
pointed delegates to meet other bodies, if such could 
be found, who sympathized with them ; they employed 
Rev. Isaac Backus, of Middleboro', to act as their agent 
in accomplishing their purpose. Still it failed. The 
Third Article in the Bill of Rights, appended to the 
constitution, clearly recognized the right to compel the 
people to support public worship, on the ground that 
"the happiness of a people, and the good order and pres- 
ervation of civil government, essentially depend upon 
piety, religion, and morality, and that these cannot be 
generally diffused through a community but by the 
institution of the public worship of God, and of public 
instructions in piety, religion, and morality." Conceding 
to the framers of that article all honesty of intention 
and purity of motive, we must also concede to our 
Baptist brethren the credit of holding the truth, on this 
point, — a very great and practical truth, which has 
since been acknowledged by the nearly unanimous 
action of the commonwealth in expunging that article, 
and leaving religion to its own inherent, vital energy, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 223 

with the promised blessing of God, for its support and 
propagation. The result has shown that public wor- 
ship and its attendant blessings can be had without le- 
gal compulsion; and even more effectually than with it. 
It was during this period that the " Congregational 
Charitable Society of Massachusetts" was organized 
to carry out the eleemosynary plan which the " Conven- 
tion of Congregational Ministers " had devised. The 
origin and early history of this convention were noticed 
in a former chapter ; as also some of their subsequent 
acts and testimonies bearing on religious and ecclesias- 
tical questions. But it has been chiefly as almoners of 
charity to the widows and children of deceased min- 
isters, that their functions have been fulfilled during 
the last hundred years. The contributions taken up at 
the close of the annual sermon had been gradually 
accumulating in the form of a residuary fund — in- 
creased by an occasional donation or legacy — when 
the idea, and the necessity of a chartered corporation 
were brought up at the annual meeting in May, 1785, 
which resulted in the appointment of eight of their 
number, to be joined by twelve laymen (designated by 
the convention), who were incorporated by an act of 
the legislature on the 24th of March, 1786, with the 
name, and for the purposes, above specified. By this 
seemingly artless method of husbanding and dispens- 
ing the funds committed to their hands for their future 
widows and fatherless children, the convention, as the 
result has proved, put the whole business forever out of 
their hands, and beyond their control, except only so far 
as relates to the small fund then on hand. All subse- 
quent donations and legacies, amounting now, with 
the accumulation from interest, according to the terms 
of the charter, to sixty or seventy thousand dollars, are 
at the disposal of some twenty or thirty individuals 
who fill their own vacancies, and give no account of 
their doings to the convention, or any one else, except 
merely to report and pay over the pittance annually set 
apart to go with the contribution taken up at the close 
of each convention sermon for the widow and fatherless. 



224 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

1790-1800. 

Fifteen churches gathered. — Comparative numbers in the different denomi- 
nations. — Rise of the Methodists. — Presbyterianism in disfavor. — Licens- 
ing candidates for the ministry. — Theatricals first introduced into Boston. 
— Massachusetts Home Missionary Society founded. — Revivals near the 
close of the last century, and their effects. 

Only fifteen Congregational churches were planted 
in Massachusetts during the last decade of the eighteenth 
century, a smaller number than in any like period for 
the previous ninety years. The causes of this are plainly 
referable to the war of the Revolution, which, in addition 
to a heavy financial pressure, left also a blight on the 
moral and religious sentiments of the people, unfavor- 
able to church extension. Nor did the churches that 
actually arose, in all cases spring from the best of im- 
pulses. 

In 1792 a separation took place between the church 
and parish in Taunton, occasioned — so say the surviv- 
ing minutes of a council — by "the opposition of a few 
in the society to some of the distinguishing doctrines of 
the gospel contained in the Westminster confession of 
faith ; " which resulted in the withdrawal of the entire 
church, excepting only four members; and its union 
with a new society formed for that purpose in the west 
part of the town, known as the West parish, with which 
the original church has ever since been connected. The 
four remaining members joined with the First parish in 
calling Rev. John Foster to settle with them. His in- 
stallation took place, May 16, 1792, from which we may 
properly date the beginning of the Second, or present 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 225 

Unitarian church in Taunton. On the 30th of May, 
1793, was gathered the Temple street church in New- 
buryport, and Rev. Charles W. Milton was ordained on 
the 20th of March following ; and the church in Gill, an 
offshoot from Deerfield, about the same time, whose first 
pastor, Rev. John Jackson, was ordained June 10, 1798. 

Three churches arose in 1794: — the New Marlboro 
church, on the 25th of April, over which Rev. John Ste- 
vens was ordained October 22; a small church in Beth- 
lehem (a district now included in Otis), September 14, 
without a pastor till its union with the Otis church ; 
and the church in Fairhaven (exact date lost), whose 
first pastor, Rev. Isaiah Weston, was settled the next 
year. 

The church in Hinsdale was gathered December 17, 

1795, but had no pastor till the settlement of Rev. Caleb 
Knight, April 28, 1802. 

The church in West Boylston arose September 15, 

1796, which settled Rev. William Nash the year fol- 
lowing. 

These three were gathered in 1797: — the church in 
Montgomery, January 30, which settled Rev. Seth Noble 
as their first pastor, November 4, 1801 ; the West church 
in Dracut, August 31, which had no pastor till the set- 
tlement of Rev. Reuben Sears, January 31, 1820 ; and 
the church in Tolland, then a part of Granville, with 
Rev. Roger Harrison for their pastor. 

In 1798, the two following arose : — the North church 
in Wrentham, June 16, over which Rev. John Cleave- 
land was ordained the same day ; and the West church 
in Needham, September 6, which settled Rev. Thomas 
Noyes, July 10 of the next year. 

The present First church in Holyoke, formerly the 
'Third in West Springfield, was gathered December 4, 
1799, and for a number of years united with the Bap- 
tists in sustaining public worship, having Rev. Thomas 
Rand for their minister. The first Congregational pastor 
was Rev. Hervey Smith, who was ordained in 1833. 

In the town of Russell, a church was organized on the 
first of November, 1800, but no pastor has ever been 

15 



226 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

settled over it; and owing to the depopulation of the 
place, the ordinances of religion have been suspended 
for several years past. 

These fifteen Congregational churches, added to the 
three hundred and thirty previously existing, (if we drop 
the Second church in Maiden, which was reunited with 
the First in 1791), will make the whole number in Mas- 
sachusetts, at the end of the last century, three hundred 
and forty-four. From the most reliable statistics within 
reach, — which yet are imperfect, — the churches con- 
nected with all other denominations in the State, were 
151, namely : — Baptists, ninety -three ; Methodists, 
twenty-nine; Episcopalians, fourteen; Quakers, eight ; 
Universalists, four ; Presbyterians (counting only those 
which continued such), two ; Roman Catholics, one. 

The Methodists made their first appearance among us 
in 1790, but had no incorporated societies or churches 
till three years later. The fact that twenty-nine such 
organizations arose during the next seven years, would 
seem quite surprising, were it not known that " class 
meetings " and preaching posts, of which several came 
into the circuit of one and the same preacher, were all 
reckoned in the statistics of that day, as so many 
churches. But after all reasonable allowance has been 
made, it will still appear that this denomination had 
extraordinary success in gaining converts during their 
early years in New England. There was evidently an 
aptitude in the public mind to receive the Methodist 
faith and form of worship. Nor is it difficult to show 
how this came about. Old orthodoxy, tinctured with Ar- 
minianism, and cooled down to a lukewarm temperature 
in its delivery from the desk, had become the character- 
istic of Sabbath day instructions, in many of the pulpits, 
as it had been prior to the great awakening in 1740 ; 
and nothing could have been more favorable to the suc- 
cess of an earnest, loud-spoken Methodist ministry. In 
his doctrinal teachings, Jesse Lee, the pioneer of that 
denomination in these parts, suited such as were of Ar- 
minian tendencies ; in his fervid style of address, he was 
acceptable to many warm-hearted Calvinists, tired of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 227 

dull preaching. What with both these adaptations to 
the wants of the people, no Wonder that Methodism had 
a rapid growth. Something of the kind was inevitable. 
The wild enthusiasm of the Quakers had long since 
disappeared, and their numbers were diminishing. The 
martyr spirit which animated the first generation of 
Baptists, had subsided with the removal of their legal 
disabilities, and their religious zeal suffered a propor- 
tional decline. If Jesse Lee had not come into Massa- 
chusetts, some one else, pressed in spirit like Paul at 
Athens, " when he saw the city wholly given to idol- 
atry," would have found utterance, and have had fol- 
lowers. 

The churches that at different periods had been consti- 
tuted after the Presbyterian model (of which seven or 
eight have been noticed in this sketch), had generally 
assumed the Congregational form. This seems the 
more remarkable, when it is known that the ministers 
were rather verging to the opposite side. The most vig- 
orous treatise that New England has ever produced in 
defence of Presbyterianism is that of Dr. Nathaniel 
Whitaker of the Tabernacle church, Salem, published 
in 1774, as a " confutation " of John Wise. But it did 
not availto turn the ebbing tide. Unluckily for the 
Presbyterian cause, the doctor's main point, namely, 
that "the brotherhoods of the churches, acting collec- 
tively, are more likely to do wrong and tyrannize, than, 
an aristocracy" (that is, an eldership), was just what 
the people felt politically bound to disbelieve and to 
disprove. Aristocracy, oligarchy, monarchy, — the tyr- 
anny which these could inflict they had suffered,, and 
were determined to throw off. They were fighting for 
popular sovereignty. It was an unfortunate time to ask 
them to abandon that mode of governing in the church, 
from which they had derived their best ideas of self- 
government in the State ; for they had too much dis- 
cernment, or else too little, to believe Dr. Whitaker's 
theory would work any better in the one case than in 
the other. Even his own flock, which had been kept 
under Presbyterian rule during his fifteen years' minis- 



228 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

try among them, reverted to their original form of gov- 
ernment immediately after his departure in 1785. In- 
deed, it was their strong proclivity in that direction 
which induced him to go. 

In one respect, however, there had been a steady 
divergency from the old Congregational way, to what, 
about this time, became a fixed usage, namely, the ex- 
amination and certified approval of candidates for the 
sacred office, by clerical associations. This was the 
only thing in the celebrated " Proposals " of 1705, which 
survived the scathing satire of Mr. Wise in the 
" Churches' Quarrel Espoused." Letters of commen- 
dation from experienced pastors, which a young minis- 
ter would naturally take when going among the churches 
as a candidate, gradually assumed the form and authori- 
ty of credentials, till, in 1790, the convention of Congre- 
gational ministers virtually made them necessary, by 
recommending that only those bearing such papers from 
clerical bodies be admitted to the pulpits. Thus the 
business of testing the qualifications of a young man 
for the ministry silently and gradually passed from the 
^churches to the clergy, where the sole responsibility now 
rests, — whether wisely or not, no one ever asks. It is 
understood, however (or should be), that such credentials 
are intended to express merely the "approbation" of 
those who give them ; and that no Congregational 
association claims, or ever can rightfully claim, the 
authority implied in the term license, which, in later 
years, has inadvertently crept into our associational 
nomenclature. 

As indicative of a departure from Puritan principles, 
and a growing laxity of morals during the period now 
under review, it may be worth while to notice, in pass- 
ing, that Boston finally succeeded in getting a theatre, 
after petitioning the legislature again and again for the 
repeal of certain old prohibitory acts and penalties. 
Two, in fact, were opened at nearly the same time, — 
one at the corner of Federal and Franklin streets, Feb- 
ruary 3, 1794, and another near the foot of the mall, 
December 26, 1796, known as the Haymarket theatre. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 229 

This last grew out of a dissatisfaction with the man- 
agement of the first, rather than from its flush patronage. 
Indeed, so slow were the descendants of the Puritans 
to appreciate this improved style of teaching morals, 
and so slender were the pecuniary proceeds, that four 
failures occurred during the first eight years! (Snow's 
Hist. Bost. 334.) How many have happened since, 
may be within the memory of some who read this 
sketch. But it should be honor enough for one city to 
be the home of Puritanism, and the u cradle of liberty," 
if it come behind others in theatricals. 

Another class of institutions, dating back to this 
period, have had a more permanent hold on the public 
sympathy. Passing over the " Society for Propagating 
the Gospel in North America," which originated on the 
other side of the water, though its commissioners on 
this side were incorporated in 1787, and have subse- 
quently prosecuted their work in their own way, the 
first missionary organization in Massachusetts was 
" the Congregational Missionary Society in the counties 
of Berkshire (Mass.) and Columbia (N. Y.)," founded 
in 1798, which is still in operation under a slight change 
of name, as an efficient auxiliary of the Massachusetts 
Home Missionary Society. Though nominally lying 
on both sides of the State line, its patronage is confined 
almost exclusively to the Massachusetts side. 

On the 28th of May, 1799, the Massachusetts Mis- 
sionary Society was organized, with Rev. Nathanael 
Emmons, D. D., of Franklin, for its first president. Its 
original object, as set forth in the second article of the 
first constitution, was, "to diffuse the knowledge of the 
Gospel among the heathens, as well as other people in 
the remote parts of our country, where Christ is sel- 
dom or never preached," — an object comprehending 
the whole range of foreign and domestic missions, as 
the work was then understood. The same breadth of 
design was retained, when, in 1804, that article was so 
amended as to read : " The object of the society is to 
diffuse the Gospel 'among the people of the newly 
settled and remote parts of our country, among the 



230 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

Indians of the country, and through more distant 
regions of the earth, as circumstances shall invite, and 
the ability of the society shall admit." Its membership 
and patronage were derived wholly from ministers and 
churches familiarly called " evangelical," as distin- 
guished from others named "liberal," — terms at that 
time interchangeable with Calvinist and Arrninian, 
though each embraced persons of considerable theologi- 
cal difference. A society having a similar object was 
formed in Connecticut the year preceding. 

These missionary movements can be traced directly 
to a revived state of religion, which marked* the close 
of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nine- 
teenth. The infusion of French infidelity into the 
American army during the Revolutionary war, and 
more especially the subsequent attempt to scatter it 
over the land, by means of secret affiliated societies 
acting in concert with the so called " Illuminati " of 
France, alarmed the fears of good men. Here and 
there a note of warning was heard from the pulpit and 
the press. Foremost among the defenders of the faith 
against this insidious attack, stood forth the gifted Dr. 
Dwight, then recently called to preside over Yale 
College. His powerful arguments and overwhelming 
eloquence, directed against the free-thinking spirit of 
the age, was most seasonable and effective. A distin- 
guished civilian, his contemporary, referring to his en- 
counter with, infidelity at that time, has expressed the 
opinion " that no man, except ' the Father of his 
Country,' had conferred greater benefits on our nation 
than President Dwight." Moved by a deep conviction 
of danger, the more devout members of the churches 
also awoke, and betook themselves to prayer, weeping 
" between the porch and the altar," and crying, " Spare 
thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to 
reproach." The consequence was a succession of re- 
vivals in various parts of Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, which though small in comparison with what has 
since been witnessed, were of immeasurable importance 
in their subsequent influence. It was the beginning of 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 231 

that moral change, which, in its development, saved us 
from becoming a nation of infidels. It was the first 
exertion of a power which, in the words of Dr. Griffin, 
" swept from so large a part of New England its loose- 
ness of doctrine and laxity of discipline, and awakened 
an evangelical pulse in every vein of the American 
church." It gave birth to those missionary movements 
already noticed, and by its continued and increased 
action, brought into being the whole family of benevo- 
lent societies that have since been the glory of our 
churches. This allusion to the " little reviving " which 
the Lord in mercy granted in that day of discourage- 
ment, is needful to a correct understanding of the pro- 
cess through which these Congregational churches were 
saved. 



232 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XIX. 

1800-1810. 

Nineteen churches organized. — Separations in churches on doctrinal grounds. 
— Harvard College lost to the Evangelical party. — Andover Theological 
Seminary founded. — The A. B. C. F. Missions constituted. — General Asso- 
ciation of Massachusetts formed. — Various benevolent societies. — First re- 
ligious periodical. 

During the first ten years of the present century, the 
following nineteen churches were organized : — 

The church in Southbridge, chiefly a colony from the 
Sturbridge church, was constituted September 16, 1801, 
though destitute of a settled ministry till the ordination 
of Rev. Jason Park, December 18, 1816. On the 1st of 
October, the same year, the Third church in Plymouth 
seceded from the First, and on the 12th of May follow- 
ing, settled Rev. Adoniram Judson. The secession 
grew out of a dissatisfaction with the theological views 
of Rev. James Kendall, who, by a majority of one 
member in the church, and a large vote of the parish, 
had succeeded the highly evangelical Dr. Chandler 
Robbins. 

The present First church in Natick was organized in 
March, 1802, and Rev. Freeman Sears was ordained 
over it, January 7, 1806. Several Indian and mixed 
churches had been gathered in the east part of the 
town since the days of Eliot, which had successively 
disappeared in the fluctuations that befell the native 
occupants of the soil. The same year, November 9, 
the Dane Street Church in Beverly was gathered, which 
settled Rev. Joseph Emerson, September 21, the year 
following. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 233 

The Branch church in Salem — so called from its 
early constitution, but now known as the Howard 
Street Church — was formed December 29, 1803, whose 
first pastor, Rev. Joshua Spaulding, was installed over 
it, April 17, 1805. The South church in Dighton, was 
also gathered in 1803, with Rev. Abraham Gushee for 
their pastor. 

No other Congregational church appears to have 
arisen in any part of the State till 1807, when the 
following five were gathered: — the church in Dart- 
mouth, some time in April, through the labors of Rev. 
Curtis Coe ; the present church in Assonet Village, 
Freetown, in the summer following, with only occa- 
sional supplies of preaching for the first twenty years ; 
the present North church in New Bedford, October 15, 
which had no settled minister till after its separation 
from the precinct, under the ministry of Rev. Sylvester 
Holmes in 1810 ; the Third church in Hingham, June 
16, with Rev. Henry Coleman for their pastor ; and 
the Second, or South church in Abington, August 19, 
whose first pastor, Rev. Daniel Thomas, was ordained 
June 1, the next year. 

In 1808, the following four were organized : — the 
Second church in Dorchester, January 1, whose first 
pastor, Rev. John Codman, D. D., was ordained on the 
7th of December ; the West church in Marlboro 5 , March 
5, a secession from the First, occasioned by the unsatis- 
factory location of a new meeting-house ; the Bellville 
church in Newburyport, some time in April, under the 
pastorship of Rev. James Miltimore ; and the First 
church hi Cambridgeport, November 3, with no pastor, 
however, till the settlement of Rev. Thomas B. Gan- 
nett in 1814. 

On the 27th of February, 1809, Park Street church, 
Boston, was constituted, with twenty-six members, 
mostly from the Old South, professing a somewhat 
higher style of orthodoxy than at that time prevailed in 
the other churches, and having Rev. Edward Griffin, 
D. D., for their first pastor. On the 22d of August, the 
same year, a' second church in Pittsfield was formed 



234 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

from the first (chiefly on political grounds), and set- 
tled Rev. T. Punderson for their first and only pastor ; 
after a separation of about eight years, a reunion was 
effected. 

In 1810, when the evangelical portion of the New 
Bedford church withdrew in a body to another place 
of worship, the residuum, in connection with the pre- 
cinct, had various preachers, till the settlement of Rev. 
Ephraim Randall, in 1814, and is now the Unitarian 
church in that city. On the 5th of June the same year 
(1810) was gathered the church in Otis, combining the 
two churches in Loudon and Bethlehem, and Rev. Jona- 
than Lee became its first pastor, June 28, 1815. "With 
this absorption the whole number in the State was 36L 

We have now reached the point where the prediction 
of Cotton Mather, nearly an hundred years before, was 
beginning to be fulfilled, — that "churches would be 
gathered out of churches," unless the defection in doc- 
trine and discipline, which he saw coming on, were 
stayed. It was a sorrowful prediction, and it is sad 
to record its fulfilment. But more sorrowful and sad 
would be the record, if, in these backsliding churches, 
no such separations had ensued. Under all the cir- 
cumstances, every occurrence of this sort afforded new 
ground of hope. It betokened the presence of a recu- 
perative power, which, in its subsequent forth-puttings, 
saved the cause of evangelical religion, as will be seen 
hereafter. And it was a significant fact, fraught with 
good omens, that this recuperative process should have 
commenced in the old Mayflower church, "the mother 
of us all." There had been one secession from this 
communion before, occasioned by a repugnance felt by 
some of its members to the revival of 1740. By the 
advice of Dr. Chauncy of Boston, those who opposed 
that revival withdrew from the old church, and formed 
a new one, and settled a pastor at whose ordination 
he preached a philippic against Whitefield. Had they 
remained apart, another separation would not have 
occurred. But after dwindling away for the space of 
thirty years, the remnant sought and obtained leave to 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 235 

return. The "old leaven" of Arminianism thus rein- 
serted, was rapidly leavening the whole lump, when the 
evangelical portion, as an act of self-preservation, in 
their turn withdrew. 

This movement at Plymouth, followed as it was a 
few years later by the gathering of Park Street church, 
in Boston, on the basis of a " decided attachment to 
that system of the Christian religion which is distin- 
guishingly denominated evangelical ; more particularly 
to those doctrines which, in proper sense, are styled 
doctrines of grace" — for these are the bold words of 
their original confession — introduced a new mode of 
defending the faith, which the "liberal" party were not 
expecting; and the cry of schism was raised. "Bigotry," 
" illiberality," " exclusiveness," those old word-weapons 
were furbished up for the new war which had evidently 
opened, though not yet formally declared. 

In this posture of affairs, two events transpired, which 
had the effect to give a more definite form to the relig- 
ious differences between the two parties, than had be- 
fore appeared, namely, the getting possession of Har- 
vard College by the one, and the founding of Andover 
Theological Seminary by the other. It does not com- 
port with the prescribed brevity of this sketch to detail 
the process through which that college, founded by 
Calvinists of the straitest sect, was transformed into an 
engine of terrible power, in battering down the religious 
system of its founders ; nor to recount the prodigies of 
faith and liberality through which this seminary arose as 
an invincible bulwark in its defence. Suffice it to say, 
that the appointment of Dr. Henry Ware, of Hingham, 
to the Hollis Professorship of Sacred Theology, in 1804, 
as successor to Dr. Tappan, who died the preceding 
year, was the turning-point in the religious destiny of 
Harvard College. As neither party were sure of a ma- 
jority, the appointment was delayed a whole year, till 
the vacancies occasioned by the death of two evangeli- 
cal members of the corporation had been filled by two 
others of opposite views. The way being thus pre- 
pared, a clamor was raised through the newspapers 



236 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

against this unreasonable delay, and the deed was sud- 
denly consummated, in spite of all remonstrance, — a 
man known to be an Anti-Calvinist, suspected of Arian- 
ism, and soon to be developed a full-formed Unitarian, 
w 7 as put into an office whose incumbent was solemnly 
bound to " profess and teach the principles of the 
Christian religion according to the well-known confes- 
sion of faith drawn up by the synod of churches in New 
England ! " The reckless manner in which this explicit 
condition was set aside, "gave signs of woe that all was 
lost." 

But in one respect the influence of it was most salu- 
tary and important. Like an electric shock on torpid 
nerves, it energized the whole body of evangelical Chris- 
tians. It awoke a spirit of religious enterprise which, 
if it could not restore lost endowments to their intended 
and original use, could found others on a broader and 
safer basis. In less than three years after Dr. "Ware's 
appointment, Mrs. Phebe Phillips, with her son, John 
Phillips, and their neighbor, Samuel Abbot, all of An- 
dover, were drawing up an instrument whereby the 
Theological Seminary in that town was founded ; to 
which, a few months later, Messrs. Bartlett, Brown, and 
Noyes, as " Associate Founders," added their princely 
gifts, — an endowment projected on a scale of munifi- 
cence at that time without a parallel in the history of 
New England. 

The opening of Andover Theological Seminary, in 
1808, was followed by the founding of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810. 
These two events have even a closer connection than 
their chronological proximity. It was the spirit which 
a few of the early students brought with them to that 
seminary — kindling, like separate coals of fire, into an 
intenser glow, by contact with one another — that stirred 
the pastors, met in General Association at Bradford, to 
take the first step which led to this result. It is a sug- 
gestive fact, fitted to inspire hope in times of discour- 
agement, that these most efficient auxiliaries to evangel- 
ical religion both sprang into being just when the evan- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 237 

gelical cause seemed in greatest danger of being crushed, 
— if indeed they were not actually quickened into life 
by the very means which, to human view, were most 
likely to crush it. " Whoso is wise, and will observe 
these things, even they shall understand the loving-kind- 
ness of the Lord." Still more manifest will the divine 
hand appear, if we associate these events with those 
revivals of religion w r hich are known to have occurred 
in various places, while they were coming to pass. Al- 
lusion has already been made to several such refreshing 
seasons, near the close of the last century, after a long 
period of spiritual dearth. We have also the published 
narratives of fifteen or twenty similar awakenings in 
Massachusetts during the first ten years of the present 
century, in which numbers of our earliest missionaries 
abroad, as well as some of the leaders in our evangeli- 
cal forces at home, became subjects of grace. 

It was also during this eventful period, namely, in the 
month of July, 1802, that the General Association of 
Massachusetts was organized. Dim traces of clerical 
associations can be discerned on the earliest pages of 
our ecclesiastical history ; though none were so consti- 
tuted as to afford a model from which the associations 
of our day were copied earlier than October 13, 1690. 
At that date one was organized in the vicinity of Boston 
to meet at Cambridge college on u Monday, at nine or 
ten o'clock in the morning, once in six weeks, or oftener 
if need shall be." Other similar bodies were formed, 
as churches multiplied, till nearly all the territory of the 
State was covered by them, and most of the ministers 
were associated in them. But no general association 
was organized till a convention, held at Northampton 
in 1802, agreed upon a basis, — substantially the same 
as the present, — and recommended it to the eight Dis- 
trict Associations therein represented. But even of 
these eight, only five sent delegates to the first two 
meetings. For various and opposite reasons the recom- 
mendation was received with indifference or distrust by 
most of the ministers throughout the state. 

Not discouraged by this experience, those who had 



238 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

initiated the scheme, with the venerable Dr. Lyman of 
Hatfield, on the lead, brought the matter before the con- 
vention of Congregational ministers in the spring of 
1804; and a committee, of which President Willard 
was chairman, was appointed by that body to corre- 
spond with all the district associations and to collect 
their views. This correspondence was found a few 
years ago among Dr. Lyman's papers, and now en- 
riches the collections of the Congregational Library 
Association. It possesses great interest, not merely as 
indicating the views then held on the subject-matter of 
inquiry, but especially as disclosing the religious type 
of the times. Two things are made quite evident : first, 
that the General Association originated with the friends 
of evangelical religion, and was designed to strengthen 
their influence ; second, that the anti-evangelical party 
were well aware of this, and took ground accordingly. 
All approved of a closer union and greater harmony 
among the ministers of Christ; but "considering the 
state of religious opinions," said one of the associations, 
" the proposed measure for promoting harmony will be 
more likely to interrupt than to cement and perpetuate 
our union." Said another, "should the object of the mo- 
tion in part be to agree upon some general uniformity 
in the articles of our faith, uniformity in our churches 
to certain rules and modes of discipline, there would be 
a vain attempt to do what never can be accomplished 
in the present age by all the wit, wisdom, and goodness 
of man." 

Among these documents is a list of twenty-four dis- 
trict associations, with the number of members set 
against each. Of these, seven associations, with an 
aggregate of eighty-two members, are marked as ap- 
proving ; four associations with fifty-four members, as 
disapproving; and four associations with thirty-four 
members, as being undecided. The balance, we are 
left to infer, made no answer at all.* It came to pass, 

* A more minute account of these transactions may be found in 
the Congregationalist of November 27, 1857, from the pen of Rev. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 239 

however, in process of time, that all the associations 
where evangelical views prevailed became affiliated in 



A. H. Quint, whose statistical researches, in more than this one 
instance, have placed the public under obligations of gratitude. The 
following extracts deserve the space here allotted to them : — 

u There were then" (that is, May 30, 1804, when the subject 
came before the Convention), " twenty-four associations in Massachu- 
setts proper, whose names and number of members were these: — 
Barnstable, 7; Bay, 10; Berkshire, 17; Boston, 16; Brookfield, 13; 
Cambridge, 11 ; Dedham, 8 ; Eastham, 6 ; Essex Middle, 10 ; Hamp- 
shire Central, 14; Hampshire North, 12; Hampshire North-East, 4 ; 
Hampshire South, 12; Haverhill, 7; Marlboro', 10; Mendon, 12; 
Mountain, 12; Plymouth, 17; Salem, 12; Unity, 7; Westford, 7; 
Westminster, 11 ; Wilmington, 9; Worcester, 7; there was also one 
in Maine, namely, Woolwich, 6. 

" Several of the associations appear to have made no reply ; of those 
who did act, the letters of fifteen are preserved among the valuable 
collections of the Congregational Library Association, and were to 
the following effect : — 

u Berkshire assented 16th April, 1805 (Stephen West, Moderator). 
Brookfield did the same, 12th February, 1805 (Ephraim Ward, Mod- 
erator). Hampshire Central * approved ' (Enoch Hale being Scribe 
pro tern.). Hampshire North 4 cordially approved ' (Jonathan 
Grant, Scribe). Haverhill voted favorably, 17th May, 1805, Stephen 
Peabody willing to answer. Mountain was unanimous in the same 
direction (Thomas Hinsdale, Moderator). Westford, meeting at 
Dracut (Paul Littlefield being Moderator, and Freeman Reynolds, 
Scribe), not only approved the plan, but also suggested the Assem- 
bly's Catechism as a proper platform. 

" Several associations were undecided. Plymouth (Joseph Bar- 
ker, Scribe), did not sufficiently understand the object. Salem (15th 
May, 1805, Thomas Barnard, Scribe), declined to express an opin- 
ion, but appointed Dr. Cutler of Hamilton, a delegate, for the sake 
of information. Barnstable (John Simpkins, Moderator) was in 
favor of some plan to secure a ' uniform method of ecclesiastical 
government and discipline/ but objected to any attempt * to com- 
pel assent to any creed or confession of faith of human devising ; ' it 
did not join until 1821. Unity (Harvard, Phineas Whitney, Moder- 
ator) was undecided, though leaning to the opposition, but desired 
some modifications of the plan. 

" On the other hand, four associations were decidedly opposed. 
Essex Middle objected (14th May, 1805, Joseph Davis, Moderator), 
on the not unreasonable ground that the churches ought to be recog- 
nized and consulted in a matter concerning religion. Marlboro' 
(Peter Whitney, Moderator), thought that such a body was uncalled 
for, assigning as particular reasons^ for ^declining, that (1), the 



240 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

this body, — the Mendon association not till 1841, after 
the decease of Dr. Emmons. The reason of this long 



convention is sufficient ' to secure all the grand results contemplated, 
that (2) there might be excited an unnecessary jealousy on the part 
of the people against the clergy, and (3) that if its object was to 
secure uniformity of creed, that was totally impossible. Worcester 
(Joseph Sumner, Moderator), dissented unanimously, alleging (1) 
the impracticability of the plan, on account of the ' number/ ' dis- 
tance/ and ' disagreement ' of the clergy, (2) that it was 4 danger- 
ous to the peace and liberty of Congregational churches/ by reason 
of probable attempts to enforce uniform l discipline/ (3) that it 
would * increase the jealousy of people against the body of the 
clergy/ and (4) that c the useful purposes contemplated by the 
motion may be more effectually answered under the influence of the 
Convention of Ministers/ Boston entered into a long and labored 
argument in opposition to the plan, in a paper now existing in its 
records, as well as communicated to the committee ; it was adopted 
5th May, 1805 ; after expressing its approval of the ' sentiments in 
which the proposal appears to have originated/ — 4 in that (quoting 
from the letter addressed to them) the Christian harmony and 
friendly cooperation of the ministers of the Gospel are concerns of 
high mutual benefit, and conduce generally to increase their useful- 
ness in the church of God/ — they proceed to express their disbelief 
in the efficacy of the plan to promote either harmony or usefulness ; 
as to cooperation, it considers the annual convention as sufficient for 
' mutual encouragement and assistance/ the several associations as 
1 highly conducive to the improvement, solace, and excitement of indi- 
viduals/ and ecclesiastical councils, as a ' profitable and edifying 
communion ' for ministers and churches ; and while it would favor 
any suitable plan to increase these advantages, yet considering ' the 
state of religious opinions, and the spirit and circumstances of the 
times, we are led to believe that no practicable plan of this nature 
can be formed, and we are apprehensive that the proposed measure 
for promoting harmony will be more likely to interrupt it/ — tend- 
ing, it argues, by discussions upon doctrinal basis, to * an erection of 
barriers between those who at present are not formally separated, and 
the bonds of union would be strengthened between those only who 
are already sufficiently cemented/ It insists equally strongly, that 
usefulness will be impaired, rather than assisted, particularly by the 
tendency to uphold 4 human standards of opinion/ which might be 
so active in erecting prejudice against dissentients as to exhibit a 
* spirit of uncharitableness and censoriousness .produced, and the 
teachers of religion placed under powerful temptations either to shun 
declaring the whole counsel of God, or to teach for doctrines the 
commandments of men/ The whole paper, while conceived and ex- 
pressed in a kind and courteous spirit, yet clearly shows that the main 
obstacle to a union was their own departure from the doctrinal views 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 241 

hesitancy may be found mainly in the following senti- 
ment, and in deference to him who uttered it : i Asso- 
ciationism leads to Consociationism ; Consociationism 
leads to Presbyterianism ; Presbyterianism leads to 
Episcopacy ; Episcopacy leads to Roman Catholicism ; 
and Roman Catholicism is an ultimate fact.' " (Hist. 
Mendon Association, by Rev. M. Blake, p. 53.) 

As was predicted by the liberal party (and probably 
expected by the other), the consummation of this 
measure was the beginning of a separation between 
the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts, founded 
on doctrinal differences which had long before existed, 
and which afterwards by degrees widened into com- 
plete non-intercourse. The subsequent history of the 
General Association discloses many acts of great mo- 
ment in their relation to Christ's kingdom, though the 
danger early pointed out of treading upon ecclesiasti- 
cal ground has not been avoided in all their proceed- 
ings. Not always have the fundamental principles of 
Congregationalism been kept in mind when business, 
more pertinent to churches than ministers, has come up 
in these clerical meetings. A noted instance may be 
found in the " Plan of Union between Presbyterians 
and Congregationalists in the new settlements," — first 
agreed upon by the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian Church and the General Association of Con- 
necticut, in 1801, and subsequently adopted by the 
General Association of this State. 

The case, stated in the fewest possible words, was 
this : — in a truly fraternal spirit, the General Assembly 
proposed to the General Association of Connecticut, — 
the only body of the kind then existing in our denom- 
ination, — that Presbyterians and Congregationalists, 
emigrating to the new settlements of the West, be 



of the earlier New England clergy, an obstacle of whose existence 
the Boston Association was evidently conscious. In addition to the 
above, it is also known that Cambridge and Mendon Associations 
dissented, the latter on grounds which prevented its union with the 
general association up to 1841." 

16 



242 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

encouraged to foster a spirit of " mutual forbearance 
and accommodation;" that a Congregational church 
settling a Presbyterian minister, or vice versa, may still 
" conduct their discipline " according to their own ec- 
clesiastical principles ; and that, in case the church be 
of a mixed character, — partly Presbyterian and partly 
Congregational* — they "choose a standing committee 
from the communicants of said church," to issue all 
cases of discipline without consulting anybody else, 
but allowing the condemned member to appeal, if he 
were a Presbyterian, to the presbytery, — if a Congre- 
gationalist, to the church. It will be seen that this plan 
of union, in its practical workings, would introduce a 
considerable change into the ecclesiastical polity of both 
denominations ; and without regard to its advantages or 
disadvantages, it will also be seen, that while the General 
Assembly, an ecclesiastical body, might consistently ne- 
gotiate such a scheme, the General Association, a mere 
body of ministers, could properly do no such thing. Yet 
the General Association of Massachusetts, " wholly dis- 
claiming ecclesiastical power over the churches or the 
opinions of individuals," found no difficulty in entering 
into that compact, — whereby scores of churches were 
gradually slid off from the Congregational platform at 
that time, as hundreds have been since. It may be 
that the Gospel has been more widely diffused by this 
well-intended measure ; but this does not touch the 
question of right and wrong, in respect to the way of 
bringing it about. 

The spirit of Christian benevolence, whose revival 
during this period has been already indicated in the 
founding of a Theological Seminary at Andover, and 
the formation of the American Board of Commission- 
ers for Foreign Missions, was still further developed in 
the organization of the " Hampshire Missionary So- 
ciety " in 1802, whose " object and business," as stated 
in the constitution, is, " to promote the preaching and 
propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ among the 
inhabitants of the new settlements of the United States, 
and the aboriginal inhabitants of the continent ; " and 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 243 

also of the " Massachusetts Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge," in 1803, " for the benevolent 
purpose of promoting evangelical truth and piety ; in 
the first place, by a charitable distribution of religious 
books among poor and pious Christians, and also 
among the inhabitants of new towns and plantations ; 
and secondly, by supporting charity schools and pious 
missionaries in places where the means of religious 
instruction are sparingly enjoyed." 

The first religious periodical in the State (unless 
"Prince's Christian History" be classed under this head)* 
also had its origin during the period now under review, 
namely, the " Massachusetts Missionary Magazine," 
whose first number came forth under the auspices of the 
Massachusetts Missionary Society in May, 1803. Its 
theological tone was Hopkinsian. Its leading object^ as 
set forth in the prospectus, was, conjointly with similar 
periodicals in America and Europe, " to call into opera- 
tion those powerful causes which are necessary to 
spread the Gospel through the world, and to bring on 
the full glory and final prosperity of the Redeemer's 
kingdom." At the close of the fifth volume, namely, in 
1808, it was united with the " Panoplist," a monthly 
periodical of kindred spirit, but differing slightly in 
theological views, which had then completed its third 
volume. For nine years the united publication was 
known as the " Panoplist and Missionary Magazine." 
From 1817 to 1822 it was called the Panoplist and Mis- 
sionary Herald. Then it assumed the name which it 
now bears, — the " Missionary Herald," — dating its 
origin, however, with that of the Panoplist, and not of 
the Magazine. 



* The idea of the Christian History originated with President 
Edwards, and was first suggested in his " Thoughts on the Revival 
of Religion in New England." It was published in weekly numbers 
of eight pages, small octavo, for the space of two years (1743-1744), 
by Thomas Prince, Jr., son of the Old South pastor, and was devoted 
exclusively to " accounts of the Revival and Propagation of Religion 
in Great Britain and America." 



244 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XX. 

1810-1820. 

Open avowal of Unitarianism. — Twenty-six churches organized, several by- 
secession. — Startling disclosures from England. — The Unitarian contro- 
versy fairly opened. — Legal decisions against the Orthodox. — Consequence 
of these decisions. — Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts insti- 
tuted. — Boston Recorder started. — Various Benevolent Societies formed. 
— Final attempt at consociation. 

The period on which we are now entering (1810- 
1820) is memorable in our ecclesiastical annals for the 
development of Unitarianism, — not its origin, but its 
open avowal in the Congregational churches. The 
w r ay in which this development was made is not the 
least remarkable thing about it, and will be noticed in 
another place. The fact itself is recognized here merely 
as the reason for introducing new terms in speaking of 
the churches that sprang up during these years. The 
following twenty-six are found: — 

Three were gathered in 1811 : — the Union church of 
Braintree and Weymouth, August 14, with Rev. Daniel 
A. Clark for the first pastor; a second church within 
the limits of Windsor, bordering on Savoy, and designed 
to accommodate the population of that small town also, 
whose first and only pastor, Rev. Jepthah Poole, was 
ordained October 11, with whose dismission, in 1816, 
the church itself expired ; and the present Unitarian 
church in Sandwich. This last was originally com- 
posed of such as adhered to the parish when the old 
church withdrew and opened another place of worship 
in connection with a new society formed for that pur- 
pose. The circumstances of the case are worthy of 
note, as inaugurating a new system of measures in 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 245 

church extension which had a run for the next twenty 
years. Displeased with the evangelical views of their 
minister, Rev. Jonathan Barr, the parish, by a vote of 
eighty-three against eighty, declared him dismissed, and 
forbade him the pulpit, in attempting to enter which 
the next Sabbath morning he was forcibly prevented. 
The ejected pastor and his adherents, including most of 
the assembled worshippers, withdrew to a neighboring 
hall for religious service; where they statedly assembled 
till a meeting-house was built. This extraordinary sep- 
aration took place September 5, 1811, and should there- 
fore date the beginning of the Unitarian church in 
Sandwich, which embraced only one tenth of the church- 
members, the other nine tenths still retaining not only 
their organic form, but their pastor also. And when he 
was reinstalled, February 17, 1813, it was " over the 
Calvinistic society lately formed and associated with 
the First church." (See Panoplist for that year, p. 234.) 
Nevertheless, the few who staid with the parish claimed 
to be " the First church," which the supreme court of 
that day confirmed, and on the strength of it the others 
were forced, at the point of law, to deliver up their 
communion furniture, and whatever sums of money 
had come into the deacon's hands, amounting in all to 
about $570 worth of property. A fund of $1,300 held 
in common by the church and parish was taken of course. 

The Third church in Abington was gathered August 
27, 1813, and settled Rev. Samuel W. Colburn, their 
first pastor, October 13, following. 

In 1814 two churches were constituted : — a small 
one in the little town of Florida, August 4, which never 
settled a pastor, and was disbanded in 1831 ; and the 
church in Harvard University, November 6, over which 
Pres. J. T. Kirkland and Prof. H. Ware, " having been 
previously chosen thereto and approved by the corpo- 
ration and overseers of the university, became its joint 
pastors without any formal installation." (Quart. Reg. 
Vol. XI. 181.) 

The two following were formed in 1816 : — the First 
church in Fall River, January 9, but with no pastor till 



246 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

the settlement of Rev. Augustus B. Reed, July 2, 1823 ; 
and the present church in Egremont, November 22, 
whose first pastor, Rev. Gardener Hayden, was settled 
November 23, 1820. The church previously existing 
in another part of the town had become extinct a few 
years before. 

Six churches were gathered in 1817 : — the Second 
in Greenfield, January 17, which settled Rev. Charles 
Jenkins, May 9, 1820 ; the Second church in Charles- 
town, March 26, which ordained Rev. Thomas Prentiss 
the same day ; the South church in Dennis, June 16, 
whose first pastor, Rev. John Sanford, was ordained 
December 30, 1818; a church in Princeton, June 18, 
comprising the small remnant left behind when the old 
church withdrew from the parish dissatisfied with their 
settlement of Rev. Samuel Clarke, of Unitarian senti- 
ments ; the Third church in Dorchester (composed 
chiefly of those who had failed in their efforts to dis- 
lodge the pastor of the Second church on account of his 
orthodoxy), with Rev. E. Richmond, D. D., for their 
pastor ; and about the same time a Unitarian church in 
Sharon, comprising the small minority of members who 
adhered to the parish when the old church withdrew 
and built a new meeting-house "for conscience' sake and 
the gospel's." This church of the parish settled Rev. 
Samuel Brimblecom for their pastor, December 18, 
1821 ; and the day following, Rev. Joseph B. Felt was 
installed over the other. 

Four churches arose in 1818: — the First church in 
South Deerfield, June 30, which settled Rev. Benjamin 
Rice the next year, February 10 ; the Unitarian church 
in Dedham, a minority that remained with the parish 
when the old church withdrew in a body at the 
settlement of Rev. Alvan Lamson, D. D., October 29 ; 
the East church in Randolph, December 15, which set- 
tled Rev. David Brigham, December 29, 1819 ; and a 
church in Westport, gathered under the ministry of Rev. 
America Bonney, which never had a pastor, and is now 
extinct. 

In 1819 these five churches were organized : — the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 247 

church at Agawam, "West Springfield, September 1, 
with Rev. Reuben Hazen for their pastor, ordained 
October 17, 1821 ; the fourth church in Plymouth 
(Chiltonville), October 13, with Rev. Benjamin Whit- 
more for their pastor ; the Unitarian church, South Bos- 
ton, Hawes place, October 27, with Rev. Lemuel Capen 
for their pastor ; the Unitarian church in Ashby, October 
27, when the old church, one hundred and one in number, 
separated from the parish on account of religious differ- 
ences, leaving only one male member, ninety years old, 
and eight females as the nucleus of this organization, 
over which Rev. Ezekiel L. Bascom was ordained soon 
after; and a church in Wales (now extinct), gathered 
through the agency of Rev. Jonas King, D. D., who 
labored with good success as a home missionary in that 
waste place before he went to Greece. 

The three following were organized in 1820 : — the 
Calvinist church, Worcester, August 16, whose first 
pastor, Rev. L. I. Hoadley, was ordained January 17, 
1821; the Trinitarian Congregational church, Waltham 
(known at the time of its organization, September 28, 
as "the church of the second society"), who settled 
Rev. Sewall Harding, January 17, 1821, and withdrew 
in a body four years later, taking their pastor with them 
and adopting their present name ; and on the 12th of 
October the same year, 1820, after an unavailing at- 
tempt to displace the pastor of the First church in 
Springfield, a secession was effected which resulted in 
the organization of the First Unitarian church in that 
city, and the settlement of Rev. B. O. Peabody, the 
same day. 

Dropping from this list the First church in Egremont, 
which became extinct in 1814 ; the Savoy church, in 
Windsor, which disbanded in 1816 ; the Second in Me- 
thuen, and the Second in Pittsfield, which returned to 
the churches whence they came, in 1817, the actual 
number on the ground was 383. 

From only these naked statistics, one might readily 
infer, either that some new element of strife had been 
introduced into the churches, or that old causes of dis- 



248 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

agreement had by some means been quickened into 
more intense activity than ever before. Both these 
inferences, in fact, are true. Former grounds of dis- 
trust between the evangelical and the liberal parties as 
they eyed each other's cautious proceedings were daily 
becoming more apparent, when a sudden disclosure was 
made, which revealed each to the other's naked view 
without the possibility of disguise. A small, unassuming 
pamphlet dropped from the Boston press in 1815,. en- 
titled " A brief history of the progress and present state 
of the Unitarian churches in America," which raised a 
perfect storm of excitement throughout New England. 
How strange ! Scores of pamphlets with similar titles 
have been issued since, without provoking the least 
w T rath on the part of Unitarians, or exciting the least 
alarm among the Orthodox. Yet both these emotions 
were deeply stirred in the breasts of these denominations 
respectively by the appearance of this little pamphlet. 
The fact seems all the more surprising when on turning 
over the leaves one finds the pamphlet made up wholly 
of extracts from an English book (Memoirs of Lindsey, 
by Mr. Belsham), published in London three years 
before, and most of these extracts nothing but calmly 
written letters from ministers on this side the water to 
their friends on the other. That such a pamphlet 
should produce such an effect, proves two things beyond 
contradiction ; first, that the evangelical party, up to that 
time, did not know the depth to which Unitarianism 
had struck its roots in this soil ; and secondly, that the 
liberal party were not yet intending to let them know 
it. It was well understood that there were diversities 
of doctrinal belief, which in some instances had already 
broken up ministerial fellowship, — differences familiarly 
known by the terms "evangelical," "liberal;" that the 
former had again branched into Calvinistic and Hop- 
kin sian shades of disagreement, as the latter also ranged 
all the way from moderate Calvinism through endless 
variations of Arminian faith to the rank heresy of Pe- 
lagius. But the existence of Unitarianism^ though often 
suspected, had not been proved, — though sometimes 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 249 

charged upon particular individuals, was resented as a 
slander, — till this little pamphlet came out, an unim- 
peachable witness to the fact. How long these views 
had been held in concealment cannot now be affirmed; 
but the date of their avowal by some of the Boston 
ministers in letters to their friends in England, reaches 
back a number of years prior to the disclosure of them 
here. How long they would have been kept concealed, 
had it not been for this forced disclosure, nobody can 
tell ; but they were avowed with sufficient boldness 
from this time forth; and men of might were found 
ready, on remarkably short notice, to become champions 
in their defence. The positiveness with which the old 
doctrine of a Trinity in the Godhead was denounced 
as an absurdity by men just entering upon a discussion 
of it, showed a maturity of conviction which must have 
had years of reflection to ripen in. For example ; in 
less than twelve months from the first avowal of the 
new doctrine by any Congregational minister in Boston, 
44 Yates' Vindication of Unitarianism " was republished 
in this city, containing passages like these : " If it be 
asked, What kind and degree of evidence would be suf- 
ficient to establish the doctrine of the Trinity, thus 
understood" (that is, as all Christendom has under- 
stood it these eighteen centuries), 44 1 reply, No evidence 
whatever; not even the clearest declarations of the 
Scriptures themselves." 44 We ought to reject this doc- 
trine even though it were plainly stated in the Scrip- 
tures;" — to which the Boston editor adds in a foot 
note, " Or, to speak more properly, 4 the Scriptures 
themselves ought to be rejected.' " See pp. 140, 141. 
To have got so far in one short year, would argue great 
precocity, supposing the editor's acceptance of Unita- 
rianism to have been as recent as his avowal of it. 

But in addition to old theological heats and heart- 
burnings, now greatly intensified by the developments 
of 1815, a new question of strife arose, not less exciting, 
and even more destructive of harmony, than had ever 
before come up. It was a question touching the civil 
rights of the churches ; and it was decided by the high- 



250 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

est judicial authority in the State that they had none 
whatever — not even the right of existence — apart from 
the parish. So that if the parish by a bare majority 
voted out one minister and voted in another, the church 
could not help themselves ; if they sought relief by with- 
drawing in a body, the remnant, however small, would 
be the church, and hold the property; if none remained, 
the church was extinct, and the parish might, if they 
chose, institute another, " an$ this new church would 
succeed to all the rights of the old in relation to the par- 
ish." Such was the authoritative decision of Chief 
Justice Parker in the Dedham case, expressed in the 
most positive terms. " The only circumstance," says 
he, " which gives a church any legal character, is its 
connection with some regularly constituted society." 
" A church cannot subsist without some religious com- 
munity to which it is attached." " As to all civil pur- 
poses, the secession of a whole church from the parish 
would be an extinction of the church," — very much as 
death ensues, when soul and body separate, only that, 
in this case, according to the learned judge, it is the soul 
which dies, and not the body. 

It will be seen at once that if this decision was to 
stand, the evangelical churches were in an evil case ; 
for who could tell how many and what kind of opposers 
of Orthodoxy might be mustered from all the highways 
and hedges and dark corners of an old territorial parish, 
especially when stimulated by the scent of .plunder ? 
That this decision was not a dead letter we have found 
evidence already in not less than six instances during 
the period we are now reviewing ; and these are but the 
preface to a long chapter of similar cases of subsequent 
occurrence, in which a minority of members who ad- 
hered to the parish took the title and records, the furni- 
ture and funds of the seceding church, though the 
secession was effected by an overwhelming vote in full 
church meeting. Bat no decision of the courts, no 
argument of the judges ever convinced one member of 
an Orthodox church that these proceedings were any 
better than plunder, — legalized it is true, but none the 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 251 

less plunder for that. With injured and exasperated 
feelings, they surrendered their church furniture and 
funds, but not their convictions. The recollection that 
the State itself, as here constituted, was born of the 
church ; that the parish was originally formed for its 
especial behoof; that the rights of each had been uni- 
versally acknowledged ever since the Cambridge plat- 
form was adopted, and were guarded by civil enactments 
running through a space of nearly two hundred years, 
- — the recollection of these things could not be blotted 
from the memory by a decree of court ; nor could plain 
common sense be made to see how a body of Christians 
lost their identity by merely changing their place of 
Worship. Consequently there were two " first" churches 
in one and the same town, — a confusion which gave 
rise to new and invidious distinctions, as " parish 
church," and " exiled church," when speaking descrip- 
tively of such organizations.* 

It is painful to recall these scenes of strife ; but they 
are an imperishable part of our ecclesiastical history, and 
without some reference to them, other parts cannot be 
made intelligible. It was this struggle for existence 
among the evangelical churches that called into being 
the " Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts 
Proper" in 1818, — formed under the auspices of the 
general association " to assist needy churches, parishes, 
and w T aste places" within the limits of the State, as the 
old Massachusetts Missionary Society, with its then ex- 
isting charter, could not do. The subsequent alteration 
of that charter, and the union of these two societies into 
one, in occupying the fields of both, and the timely aid 
thus afforded to our " exiled " churches, will come under 
more particular notice hereafter. The present chapter 
shall close with the record of a few miscellaneous facts 
that belong to this period. 

The first weekly religious newspaper in the land, if 



* See an able refutation of these judicial decisions in Spir. Pilg. 
Vol. I. pp. 113-140. 



252 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

not in the world, to wit, The Boston Recorder, was 
started in 1816. A proposal to set up a religious con- 
ference and prayer-meeting on 'Change in State street 
would seem hardly more incongruous now, than this 
mercantile method of inculcating sacred things did to 
many a scrupulous mind when the scheme was first 
announced. But the countless number of similar sheets 
now issued all over Christendom shows that it was one 
of those great ideas which mark eras in the world's 
progress. 

The following benevolent societies were organized in 
Massachusetts about this time : — The Howard Benev- 
olent Society, in 1812; The American Tract Society, 
Boston, in 1814 ; The American Education Society, in 
1815; The Boston Female Jews Society, in 1816; The 
Massachusetts Peace Society also in 1816 ; The Boston 
Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the 
Poor, in 1820 ; besides many smaller institutions of 
similar spirit and aim. 

The last attempt to bring the Congregational churches 
of Massachusetts into consociation was made during 
this period, and on this wise. An original manuscript 
document, found among the papers of Dr. Cotton 
Mather, containing an answer tothe question, " What 
further steps are to be taken, that councils may have 
their due constitution and efficacy in supporting, pre- 
serving, and well ordering the interests of the churches 
in the country ? " was submitted to the General As- 
sociation at their meeting in 1815; and a committee 
was appointed to inquire into its history, with instruc- 
tions also to report at the next annual meeting, " on the 
expediency of a recommendation of this body of the 
plan of discipline there proposed, to the consideration of 
the association and churches in our connection." 

When the year came round, the committee, through 
their chairman, Rev. Jedediah Morse, D. D., presented a 
very elaborate report, rich in historical information, and 
embodying a " Plan of Ecclesiastical order," expressed 
in ten carefully drawn " Articles of agreement" for the 
churches " explicitly to adopt and duly to put in prac- 



m MASSACHUSETTS. 253 

tice." The document appears to have been neither 
more nor less than the original draft of those celebrated 
proposals — sixteen in number — which John Wise 
of Ipswich had demolished a hundred years before in 
the " Churches' Quarrel Espoused." It was the second 
attempt to resuscitate those death-struck proposals, the 
first having been made in 1774 by Dr. Whitaker for a 
Presbyterian purpose, and now by this committee as the 
basis of consociation. Both were alike abortive. A 
vote was passed, " That the report be printed, and copies 
sent to the several associations in our connection, for 
the purpose of ascertaining the public sentiments re- 
specting the plan of ecclesiastical order therein presented, 
and that the subject be called up at the next meeting 
of the Genera] Association." The subject accordingly 
came up, but the most that the association could be 
induced to do in favoring the plan was to signify that 
they had " no objection " to the consociating of those 
who desired it, as tHey had " no wish to prescribe opin- 
ions to their brethren." And here the matter ended.* 
(Minutes for 1816, and Spir. Pilg. Vol. III. p. 609.) 

Let us do justice to the motives of our fathers in this 
transaction. The ecclesiastical affairs of our denomi- 
nation were in a deplorable state. The want of agree- 
ment in religious doctrine and church-discipline was 
dissolving the bonds of fellowship between ministers 
and churches, who yet were held together by ecclesi- 
astical ties that created incessant friction. Almost every 
council called together to settle or dismiss a pastor, to 
deal with an erring minister or church-member, or in 
any way to advise on church matters, was divided in 
sentiment and discordant in action. To obviate these 
crying evils, and at the same time to deliver the evan- 



* This attempt at consociation, though unsuccessful, aroused sus- 
picions which " for a time hindered the growth of the General Associ- 
ation." Merely the recommendatory report " occasioned the with- 
drawment of one or more associations which had united with the body, 
and probably prevented several others from uniting with it." — Hist. 
Gen. Ass. Am. Quar. Eeg. Vol. XI. p. 168. 



254 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

gelical interest from its imperilled position, was the lead- 
ing, if not the only, motive impelling towards consoci- 
ation. But this was not the first instance in which 
good men, by attempting to avoid the roaring Scylla, 
have narrowly escaped the rocky Charybdis. Through 
the good hand of God upon them, the association steered 
through the dangerous narrows, and the desired haven 
was safely reached. A more effectual deliverance was 
wrought, in a less objectionable way, as we shall see in 
the sequel. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 255 



CHAPTER XXI. 

1820-1830. 

Ninety-seven churches organized. — Secessions multiply. — Mode of conducting 
the controversy. — Unitarians get possession of old meeting-houses, and the 
Orthodox build new ones. — Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts 
formed by the General Association. — u Spirit of the Pilgrims " established. 
— Amherst College founded. — Church conferences organized. 

That new mode of church extension, which we saw 
inaugurated by the Evangelical party soon after, this 
century opened, of " gathering churches out of churches" 
when the declension could not be otherwise arrested ; 
and that still newer method invented by the supreme 
court, of driving them off from parishes and seizing 
their funds when they would not submit to parish dic- 
tation, had a most extraordinary development during 
the period (1820-1830) which we now approach. Under 
the combined action of both these causes the Congre- 
gational churches in Massachusetts were multiplied 
beyond all precedent. Not less than ninety-seven were 
added in these ten years, of which about two thirds 
were the result of separations growing directly out of 
the Unitarian controversy. In all such cases, where the 
church is known to have withdrawn in an organic body, 
whether every member went or not, it is assumed, in 
this sketch, that the original date is theirs ; but when 
individual members seceded and organized anew, though 
constituting a majority, the residuum, or parish church, 
is considered the original. This deviates from the prin- 
ciple laid down by the civil courts of that day; but bet- 
ter differ even from a Chief Justice, than to fall out with 
common sense and common law. 

As the terms " Trinitarian " and " Unitarian " had 



256 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

come into familiar use in designating those two sorts 
of Congregational churches, they will here be employed 
where distinctive names are needed. For the sake of 
brevity, the first pastor and the date of his settlement, 
heretofore included in the statistics, must be omitted 
hereafter. 

In 1821, the five following churches were organized: 
— the Trinitarian church in Harvard, March 22, a seces- 
sion of nineteen members from the old church ; the 
Second or East church in Falmouth, June 20, a colony 
from the First ; the Trinitarian church in Taunton, 
August 17, a secession of twenty-nine members from 
the Second, when that church settled a Unitarian min- 
ister ; a Second church in Granby, October 10, which 
was reunited with the First in 1836 ; and the Trinita- 
rian church in Bridgewater, October 17, a secession from 
the other after it became Unitarian. 

In 1822, the Unitarian church in Lynn was gathered 
June 15; the present Essex Street church, Boston, Aug. 
26 ; and the Trinitarian church in Leominster, Decem- 
ber 25, a secession of ten members from the First. 

The following six were gathered in 1823: — the 
church in Prescott, January 15, a colony from Pelham ; 
the Trinitarian church in Petersham, June 25, a seced- 
ing band of fifteen members ; the Second church in 
Medford, October 2, a secession from the First; the 
Green Street church, Boston, December 30 ; the Uni- 
tarian church in West Boylston, and the Unitarian 
church in Fitchburg, some time during the year, both 
seceders from churches that had fallen under Unitarian 
control. 

These nine had their origin in 1824: — the Trini- 
tarian church in Bernardston seceded January 13, with 
sixteen members of the old church ; the church at South 
HadJey Falls was gathered August 12; the South 
church in Amherst, October 14 ; the North church in 
New Salem, Noverpber 10; the Trinitarian church in 
Cohasset, November 24, formed of twenty seceders 
from the other ; the Curtisville church in Stockbridge, 
December 22; and the Independent (Unitarian) church 
in Salem, exact date not known. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 257 

Ten churches were gathered in 1825 : — the Cham- 
bers Street Unitarian church, Boston, January 28 ; the 
Unitarian church in Scituate, a remnant left adhering 
to the parish when the old church withdrew, April 29 ; 
the Unitarian church in Danvers, June 18 ; the Hano- 
ver Street church (now Bowdoin Street), Boston, July 
18 ; a Unitarian church in Boylston (now extinct), June 

22, when the old church withdrew from the parish ; the 
Unitarian church in Northampton, July 28, seceders 
from the first parish ; the Trinitarian church in North- 
field, November 30, a secession of thirty members from 
the other ; the Phillips church in South Boston, Decem- 
ber 10 ; the Unitarian church in Stoughton, constituted 
after the old church and their pastor withdrew from the 
parish ; the Unitarian church in Greenfield, gathered 
chiefly out of the Second society ; and the Purchase 
Street Unitarian church, Boston. 

Ten were also organized in 1826 : — the church in 
Amherst College, March 7 ; the church in Ware Vil- 
lage, April 12 ; the Trinitarian church in Concord, 
June 5, seceders from the old church ; the First church 
in Lowell, June 6 ; the Union Trinitarian church of 
East and West Bridgewater, June 30, a secession from 
the other two, turned Unitarian ; the North church in 
Amherst, November 15 ; the Unitarian church in Gro- 
ton, November 21, when the old church withdrew from 
the parish ; the West church in Andover, December 5, 
a colony from the South church ; the Trinitarian church 
in Walpole, a secession of twenty-eight members from 
the other; and the Unitarian church in Grafton, gathered 
after the old church withdrew from the parish. 

The following twelve were organized in 1827:^- 
the North church in Adams, April 19 ; the Unitarian 
church in Brookfield, a residuum of two males and ten 
females, who adhered to the old parish when the church 
and pastor withdrew; the Trinitarian church in Barre, 
August 15, a secession of twenty-five members from 
the old church ; the Second church in Millbury, August 

23, originally Presbyterian, now Congregational ; the 
Salem Street church, Boston, September 1 ; the Pine 

17 



258 * CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES % 

Street church, Boston, September 2; the Trinitarian 
church in Brighton, September 13, a secession from the 
Unitarian ; the First Trinitarian church in Cambridge- 
port, September 20 ; a Union church in Hebronville, 
December 25, which ceased to be Congregational in 
1842; the Unitarian church in Raynham, gathered from 
the Trinitarian; the South Congregational church (Uni- 
tarian) on Washington street, Boston ; the Centre 
church, Rochester, which had been ecclesiastically one 
with the South church (Marion), though parochially 
distinct, and with a separate place of worship, for 
nearly a hundred years. 

Twelve churches were added in 1828 : — the Trinita- 
rian church in Medfield, February 7, a secession of 
seventeen members from the other, after the pastof had 
become Unitarian ; a» Unitarian church in Oakham 
(now extinct), if indeed an ecclesiastical body was ever 
organized in connection with the parish after the aged 
pastor and every member of his church were driven 
from the meeting-house, February 7, to which, after a 
five years' exile, they were permitted to return ; the 
Unitarian church in Hubbardston, February 13, a small 
minority that remained with the parish when the old 
.church and pastor withdrew ; the Trinitarian church in 
Shirley, March 12; the Trinitarian church in Kingston, 
March 19, a feeble band of seceders from the old church ; 
the Trinitarian church in North Chelsea, May 9, a seces- 
sion from the First church after it became Unitarian ; 
the Trinitarian church in Wayland, May 21, a secession 
under similar circumstances; a Unitarian church in 
Amesbury Mills, June 22 ; the Trinitarian church at 
Canton, July 3, also a secession ; the Trinitarian church 
dn Mendon, August 13, a secession comprising the 
major part of the old church ; the Trinitarian church in 
Westford, a secession effected December 25; and a 
Unitarian church in Hardwick, a small residuum when 
the Orthdox withdrew. 

These thirteen were gathered in 1829: — the Trini- 
tarian church in Warwick, June 10, a secession of 
thirty members from the Unitarian ; a Trinitarian 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 259 

church in North Dennis, March 4, embracing a majority 
of the old church, who took themselves off from the 
Unitarian parish, and are now absorbed in other evan- 
gelical churches; the church in Dorchester village, 
March 11, a colony from the Second ; the Unitarian 
church in Carlisle, a residuum of five members when 
the old church withdrew from the parish ; the Trini- 
tarian church in the West parish, Gloucester, a reorgan- 
ization of the Orthodox members, March 23 ; the church 
in Pawtucket, April 17 * the Second, or East church, in 
Longmeadow, which colonized from the First, April 22; 
the Trinitarian church in Billerica, April 30, a small 
secession from the Unitarian ; a Unitarian church in 
Boxboro', May 20, formed after the old church had 
withdrawn from the parish ; the Trinitarian church at 
Gloucester Harbor, November 17, a secession of seven 
members from the First; the South church in Brain- 
tree, November 18, a colony from the old church ; the 
(Unitarian) church of the first parish in Cambridge, 
November 20, composed of such as remained behind 
when the old church withdrew; and the Robinson- 
church in Plymouth, a secession from the third, and 
now reunited with it. 

The following seventeen churches arose in 1830: — 
the Unitarian church in Framingham, a small remnant- 
that adhered to the parish when the old church and 
pastor withdrew some time in January; the Mariner's 
church, Boston, January 20 ; the Unitarian church in 
Townsend, when the other withdrew from the parish, in 
February ; the Unitarian church in South Natick, March 
11 ; the Trinitarian Union church in Bolton, March 17, 
comprising members from several neighboring towns, in 
which no evangelical church then existed ; the Unitarian 
church in Sherborn, March 25, the minority which 
remained with the parish when the old church with- 
drew; a Unitarian church in South Reading, March 21, 
a secession from the Trinitarian ; the church in Chico- 
pee Falls, gathered July 3 ; the Trinitarian church in 
Gardner, August 11, a secession from the First; the 
North church in Gloucester, August 25, a reorganization 



260 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

from the ruins of an old church, the remnant of which 
is now Universalist ; the Trinitarian church in Athol, 
August 29, a secession from the First church ; the Uni- 
tarian church in Lowell, November 7 ; the South church 
in New Bedford, November 30, a colony from the 
North ; the Appleton Street church in Lowell, Decem- 
ber 2 ; the Unitarian church in Chelmsford, December 
4 ; the Unitarian church in Berlin, bearing date from 
the withdrawal of the First church from the parish ; and 
a Unitarian church in Dunstable, since extinct. 

Deducting three small Unitarian assemblies, — those 
in Pelham, Boylston, and Oakham, — that broke up 
before 1830, there were 477 Congregational churches in 
the State. 

The prominent characteristic of the period which 
we are now passing is the Unitarian controversy, which 
reached its culminating point about 1830. Of the 
ninety -four new churches, here enrolled, thirty-six were 
formed by seceding members, chiefly evangelical, that 
were subsequently reorganized. Seventeen others, all 
Unitarian, were so many remnants left behind, where 
old churches, dispossessed of their places of worship, 
withdrew in a body from the parishes with which they 
had been connected. In every such case, the withdraw- 
ing church voluntarily gave up the meeting-house as a 
matter of course ; and then all trust funds, whether held 
by the parish or the church, by whomsoever given, and 
for whatsoever purpose, were taken from them by legal 
force. The estimated amount of these spoliations will 
be given in the next chapter, where we may hope to 
find an end of this war. At present, we will merely 
mark its progress, and indicate the steps by which that 
end was reached. 

This strife of tongues and pens and pulpits, which 
had been waxing more fierce every month since the 
disclosures of 1815, at length brought the contending 
powers into a corresponding strife of action. Measures 
offensive, defensive, preventive, and remedial, were pro- 
jected with marvellous sagacity, and executed with pro- 
digious energy. We have already had occasion to 



EST MASSACHUSETTS. 261 

notice how Harvard College was seized upon by the 
one, and Andover Seminary founded by the other. 
These two events foreshadowed the different lines of 
policy pursued by the two parties throughout this con- 
troversy, which, like that fratricidal battle " in the wood 
of Ephraim " between the servants of David and Absa- 
lom, " was scattered over the face of all the country." 
Old meeting-houses were everywhere falling into the 
hands of the one, and new meeting-houses rising under 
the hammers of the other. To the former, the courts 
uniformly gave all the church funds, however the divis- 
ion of church-members might be balanced ; while to 
the latter, as to the primitive churches, " it was given, 
in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but 
also to suffer for his sake." And these sufferings sug- 
gested a primitive mode of relief. 

The idea of " distributing to the necessity of saints " 
was not a new one with these Congregational churches. 
It is distinctly embodied in the Cambridge platform 
(chap. XV.) as "a sixth way of church communion" 
and had often been practised on a small scale. But 
never before had so many churches, dwelling together 
in such close proximity, been so suddenly brought to 
impoverishment. To project a system of charitable 
distribution on a scale commensurate with the present 
and prospective wants of the whole body of evangelical 
churches — for they were all in peril — was a bold 
stroke of Christian enterprise ; but it was successfully 
attempted. The annual income of the " Domestic Mis- 
sionary Society of Massachusetts," formed in 1818, by 
the General Association, "to assist needy churches, 
parishes and waste places," within the limits of the 
state, as the old "Massachusetts Missionary Society" 
of 1799 was doing outside of those limits, had not 
reached $1,000 in 1822, and that of the other* scarcely 
exceeded $2,000, when negotiations were set on foot 
for combining the two organizations into one, which 
was effected in 1827 ; and the resources of both were 
directed to every point where the cry of an oppressed 
church was heard. At the end of the period now under 



262 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

review, namely, in 1830, fifty-seven of these " exiled 
churches," as they were significantly called, had re- 
ceived pecuniary help in sums varying from $50 to 
$150 a year, in supporting the Gospel; besides aid 
from private donors in building meeting-houses. To 
commit such an agency to the hands of one of the 
most earnest and efficient ministers of Christ in Massa- 
chusetts, was to " organize victory," as events soon 
showed. The warm, fraternal sympathy thus poured 
into the bosoms of a band of religious outcasts, strug- 
gling at the point of death to uphold the faith, was 
more helpful than the return of all their lost funds 
would have been, as it filled them with gratitude, and 
inspired them with hope, and enkindled their zeal. To 
one familiar with the present routine of domestic mis- 
sions in New England, nothing is more surprising than 
the effect of a small appropriation of $50 or $75 a year, 
at that time, in bracing up a feeble church. A few 
hundred dollars, distributed through as many years, 
was ordinarily enough to secure a vigorous and lasting 
independence. The explanation is to be sought in the 
spirit and surroundings of the recipients. It was not 
the decay of religious interest which brought those ex- 
iled churches on the Missionary Society, as is often the 
case now, but exactly the opposite. And that quick- 
ened, intensified interest in religious things which could 
bring them out as scorned seceders, " a spectacle unto 
the world, to angels, and to men, — fools for Christ's 
sake," — and place them in a condition of dependence 
on charity, would not be long in bringing them off from 
that dependence ; especially where God vouchsafed 
the presence of his spirit in a revival of religion, as 
in almost every case he did, before the struggle was 
ended. 

As an'event bearing decidedly on the grand issue of 
this controversy, we should not overlook the gathering 
of Hanover Street church, Boston, in 1825, and the re- 
moval of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., from Litchfield,, 
Connecticut, to take the pastoral charge of it. Up to 
that time the Evangelical party had stood mainly on 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 263 

the defensive; thenceforward, their measures were more 
aggressive. A purpose to recover what was lost, no 
less than to defend what was left, got extensive posses- 
sion of leading minds, and brought out great results, — 
seen, among other things, in the many Orthodox 
churches planted in and around Boston. 

Another event of great importance to the evangelical 
interest was the establishment of the " Spirit of the 
Pilgrims," a monthly magazine, whose first number 
dates frtfm January, 1828, though the first issue was 
several months later. Its bold and able defence of 
Puritan principles, evangelical religion, and the rights 
of Congregational churches, together with the vigorous 
cooperation of the Christian Spectator, published at 
New Haven, had much to do in turning back the cap- 
tivity of Zion. The Panoplist, which will ever be re- 
membered with esteem for the service it rendered at the 
opening of this controversy, had disappeared in the Mis- 
sionary Herald, as its venerated editor had also devoted 
his strong powers of mind to the missionary work ; and 
the Spirit of the Pilgrims took its place. On the other 
side were arrayed the Christian Examiner, the Christian 
Disciple, and the Unitarian Advocate, combining the 
best talent in the departments of literature, law, and 
theology which Cambridge and Boston, the Athens of 
America, could furnish. 

Not remotely connected with this all engrossing con- 
troversy was the founding of Amherst College, in 1821. 
An impulse precisely like that which moved the found- 
ers of Harvard led to its establishment. A proposal 
to remove Williams College from one corner of the 
State to a central position, as a counterpoise to Cam- 
bridge, failing of its accomplishment, a fund of $50,000 
was subscribed for the tuition of " indigent pious stu- 
dents," with which a new collegiate institution was 
started in the village of Amherst. After three appli- 
cations to the general court, and three stern rebuffs, 
it became a chartered college in 1825, — given, by its 
thousands of religious founders, "to Christ and the 
Church," as that at Cambridge had been nearly two 



264 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

hundred years before. It was as an " engine of Ortho- 
doxy," that it suffered such hard treatment at the hands 
of the legislature, as their printed speeches sufficiently 
attest, — than which, in the words of a candid reviewer, 
" we presume the annals of legislation do not furnish 
more rank specimens of gall and bitterness." (B. B. 
Edwards, in Am. Quart. Reg. Vol. IV. 331.) 

And so it was with every movement of a religious 
nature ; the day of concealment had gone by. The 
thoughts of men's hearts were revealed. Their real in- 
tents now came forth in open speech and undisguised 
action. Whatever may have been the characteristic 
sins of the times, hyprocrisy was not one of them ; nor 
was moderation one of the prevailing virtues. Probably 
very few now living can look back with entire satisfac- 
tion, or with unmitigated censure, on all the proceedings 
of either party. 

But this outspoken, right-earnest spirit, which the 
controversy had come to assume in 1830, presaged its 
approaching end. It had the effect also to sharpen 
those points of Orthodoxy which had been rounded off 
somewhat by the forced fellowship long kept up between 
evangelical preachers and those of liberal views. At 
no time since the days of President Edwards had the 
" doctrines of grace " been so clearly defined and so 
faithfully preached in New England, as in the days 
when the separation was taking place between Trinita- 
rians and Unitarians, in these Congregational churches. 
This was one of the incidental advantages derived 
from the conflict before the grand, triumphant issue was 
reached. 

Another was the bond of union thereby formed be- 
tween churches of " like precious faith," exposed to 
common perils in its defence. Our present conference 
system — those local organizations of sister churches 
into confederate groups, for mutual encouragement and 
consultation, that once covered nearly the whole State 
in a beautiful net-work of Christian charity — originated 
in these times of tribulation. Though strictly ecclesias- 
tical in their character, these conferences of churches 



m MASSACHUSETTS. 265 

have ever disclaimed ecclesiastical jurisdiction, limiting 
their functions to the cultivation of practical godliness, 
or the promotion of benevolent objects; and where they 
adhere to that disclaimer, their influence is eminently 
good. 



266 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 



CHAPTER XXII. 

1830-1840. 

Eighty churches gathered. — The controversy closed, and its results esti- 
mated. — Pecuniary losses of the Orthodox, and their gain in other respects. 
— Report on "exiled churches." — Unitarians become a distinct denomina- 
tion, and are dropped from this sketch in its subsequent details. 

The same religious controversy that ran like a forest 
fire over the eastern and central portions of Massachu- 
setts throughout the last decade, continued etill to blaze 
at the opening of this (1830-1840); and its effect in 
the multiplication of churches was scarcely less marked. 
Eighty were added during these ten years. 

The four following sprang up in 1831: — the Trini- 
tarian church in Southboro', a small company of seced- 
ers from the First church, turned Unitarian, was organ- 
ized February 17; a church in the little town of Mount 
Washington (now extinct) was gathered some time in 
September ; the North church in Hadley, October 26 ; 
and the Trinitarian church at Amesbury Mills, Decem- 
ber 6, which purchased the Unitarian meeting-house 
built a few years before, and absorbed the congrega- 
tion. 

The following twelve were gathered in 1832: — the 
Unitarian church in Pepperell, formed around the 
nucleus of ,two or three members of the First church 
who adhered to the parish when the body withdrew, 
January 26 ; the Unitarian church in Fall River, March 
9 ; the Trinitarian church in Acton, being a large 
majority of the First church, who withdrew and re- 
organized, May 13 ; the Trinitarian church in Norton, a 
secession from the other, April 3; the Trinitarian 
church in Templeton, a secession of seventeen members 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 267 

from the First church, April 11 ; the Trinitarian church 
in Northboro', a seceding band, organized April 12 ; the 
Unitarian church in Uxbridge, a minority left behind 
when the old church and pastor were driven from their 
meeting-house, about this time ; the Crombie Street 
church in Salem, May 3 ; the John Street church in 
Lowell, July 4 ; the Trinitarian church in Quincy, a 
secession from the old church, August 16 ; the church in 
Erving, September 19; and the Unitarian church in 
Bedford, a small remnant adhering to the parish, when 
the First church and pastor withdrew from the meet- 
ing-house to the town-house, and then were driven from 
the town-house to a private dwelling, for their adher- 
ence to the ancient faith. 

Nine churches arose in 1833 : — the Olivet church in 
Springfield, January 8 ; the Winthrop church in Charles- 
town, January 9 ; the Edwards church in Northampton, 
January 17 ; a Unitarian church in Marlboro', April 1, 
when the old church withdrew from the parish ; the 
Monument church in Sandwich, whose members, though 
connected with a separate precinct for nearly fifty years, 
still belonged to the First church till July 9 ; the 
Centre church in Haverhill, a seceding majority, which 
w r as reorganized August 28 ; the South church in Well- 
fleet, a colony from the First, December 4 ; the Village 
church in West Stockbridge, December 25 ; and the 
North church in Falmouth. 

The following eleven came up in 1834 : — the church 
in Ashland, a colony from the Hollis church, Framing- 
ham, January 22; the East church in Douglas, a colony 
from the Centre church, June 12 ; the church in Wil- 
liams College, June 15 ; the church in Whitinsville, 
a colony from the First church in Northbridge, July 31 ; 
the Trinitarian church in the North Parish of Beverly, a 
small secession from the other, September 1 ; the Trin- 
itarian church in the North Parish of Andover, Septem- 
ber 3 ; the Eliot church in Roxbury, September 18; the 
Brainard church in Belchertown, a secession from the 
old church, September 30, which was reunited with it 
seven years after; the Cabotville church in Chicopee, 



268 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

October 16; and at uncertain dates during the same 
year, the Unitarian church in Milton, a remnant adher- 
ing to the parish when the old church withdrew ; and a 
small Unitarian church in Westboro', which seceded 
from the First, and expired soon after. 

These nine had their origin in 1835: — near the 
beginning of the year, the Warren Street (Unitarian) 
church, Boston, was formed, and King's Chapel, orig- 
inally Episcopalian (with a Unitarian Liturgy from 
1785), became Congregational ; the Central church, 
Boston, May 11 ; the Trinitarian church in Deerfield 
village, constituted with eighteen seceders, June 2 ; the 
Trinitarian church in Lunenburg, a secession from the 
First, June 10 ; the South church in West Roxbury, 
June 11 ; the Trinitarian church in the North Parish, 
Marshfield, a secession of thirteen members from the 
Unitarian, July 4 ; the Union church of Amesbury and 
Salisbury, October 14; and the Trinitarian church in 
Rowe, a secession from the Unitarian, October 28. 

Eight churches arose in 1836 : — the Union church, 
Worcester, February 3 ; the Saxonville church in Fram- 
ingham, a colony from the old church, May 1 ; the 
Maverick church, Boston, May 31 ; the present church 
in Scotland parish, Bridgewater, formed July 4, after 
the original church had removed its place of worship to 
the centre of the town ; a church in Storrsville, within 
the limits of Petersham, which, in 1852, was dissolved 
and reorganized in Dana ; the Unitarian church in Lei- 
cester ; the Pitts Street Unitarian church, Boston ; and 
the South church in William stown. 

The following seven were organized in 1837: — the 
South church in North Bridgewater, January 3 ; the 
Winslow church in Taunton, January 12; the South 
church in Royalston, February 1 ; the Washington 
Street church in Beverly, February 8 ; the present 
church in Pelham, a reorganization, October 25, after 
the old church had turned Unitarian and become ex- 
tinct; the Suffolk Street Unitarian Chapel, in Boston, 
October 29 ; and the Irvingsville church, October 31, 
subsequently merged into the South church in Orange. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 269 

These four were added in 1838 : — the Bulfinch 
church, Boston, originally Universalist, became Uni- 
tarian about this time ; the Trinitarian church in Mans- 
field, seceded from the Unitarian, May 9 ; the church in 
Webster was gathered in June ; and the Village church 
in Med way, September 10. 

Six churches sprang up in 1839: — the Trinitarian 
church in Stow, a secession from the old church, May 
11 ; the Winter Street church in Haverhill, May 13 ; 
the Trinitarian church in Lancaster, May 22 ; the Vil- 
lage church in Cummington, July 1 ; the Trinitarian 
church in Dover, October 23, composed of seceders 
from the old church ; and the North church in Abing- 
ton, the same month. 

The following ten had their origin in 1840 : — the 
South church in Adams, January 1 ; the Trinitarian 
church in Littleton, May 14, a secession from the First 
church ; the North church in Truro, June 25 ; the Cen- 
terville church in Barnstable, July 30 ; the West church 
in Cummington, September 20 ; the West church in 
Yarmouth, a colony from the First, September 30 ; the 
church in Winchester, a colony from the Woburn 
church, November 19 ; and, some time during the year, 
the Second Unitarian church in Lexington ; a Unita- 
rian church in the East Parish, Medway ; and the Uni- 
tarian church in Easton, formed from such materials as 
were left when the old church and pastor withdrew 
from the parish. 

This brings us through the period assigned to the 
present article, and also through the Unitarian con- 
troversy, — at least that belligerent form of it which 
has met our eye at every turn, during the previous 
thirty years. The last ejectment of a church from their 
place of worship, or voluntary withdrawal to avoid such 
an issue, had transpired. The strife about parish funds 
and communion furniture had ceased, — for the reason 
that all property of this sort owned by the Orthodox, 
which the law could lay hands on, had already been 
taken away. Nor were there any more Trinitarian 
churches formed by secessions from old Puritan churches 



270 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

turned Unitarian, because all such members had se- 
ceded. A complete separation had beer* gradually 
effected between these two kinds of Congregationalists, 
sundering them into two sects, as distinct as any others in 
the Protestant family. It is true that Orthodox churches 
continued to spring up, as they are now springing up, 
in towns and villages where evangelical preaching had 
been excluded; and so, on the other hand, Unitarian 
churches occasionally arose in communities where the 
Orthodox previously held the ground. But these occur- 
rences since 1840 have awakened as little strife as the 
advent of any other denominations. The conflict vir- 
tually came to an end during the period we are now 
sketching. This seems to be a proper place, therefore, 
to pause, and take a general survey of the results. 

The following statistics present the most concise 
view that can be given, and one as helpful, perhaps, as 
any other in forming a candid judgment of the issue. 
At the opening of this controversy, which, for the sake 
of a precise date, we may assign to 1810, the whole 
number of Congregational churches in Massachusetts 
was three hundred and sixty-one ; all of them founded 
on the old Puritan faith, — at least, all professedly Trin- 
itarian. In the course of this controversy, ninety-six of 
these same churches passed over to Unitarianism, be- 
sides thirty parishes, where the same views predomi- 
nated to the exclusion of evangelical preaching from 
their pulpits, and consequently the withdrawal of the 
churches from their meeting-houses. So that one hun- 
dred and twenty-six places of worship, with their ap- 
purtenances of parish and church funds, were lost to 
the cause of evangelical religion and gained to its 
opposite. The full* amount of this loss and gain can- 
not be exactly stated. And yet we have the data for a 
probable estimate. 

Among the collections of the Congregational Library 
Association is a manuscript report on " the condition 
of those churches which have been driven from their 
houses of worship by town or parish votes, or by meas- 
ures equivalent to such votes," made to the General 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 271 

Association of Massachusetts, in 1836, by a committee 
of one from each of the district associations, — twenty- 
three in number, — in accordance with a vote of that 
body, passed in 1833. This document, comprising 
fifty-two closely written pages of large letter paper, is 
the result of a thorough research, and possesses great 
value, as illustrating one of the most important periods 
in our ecclesiastical history. It enumerates eighty-one 
" exiled churches," giving a detailed account of their 
sufferings and self-denials for the cause of evangelical 
religion ; and supposes that " some others of the same 
class may have been overlooked in this enumeration." 
Among the items which make up the report on each 
church is the amount of "parish funds" left behind 
when they went into " exile," the amount of " church 
funds," including communion furniture, library, etc., 
which were wrested from them after they went, and the 
general condition of the meeting-houses from which 
they were "driven," — as also the proportion of mem- 
bers that remained with the parish. The figures added 
together make the total of parish and church funds, 
$365,958. The .value of the meeting-houses, at three 
thousand dollars each, — which is probably a«low valu- 
ation, —makes $243,000 more; grand total of property 
voluntarily surrendered by these eighty-one churches, or 
violently taken away, $608,958. At six per cent, inter- 
est this would yield $36,537 a year ; or $451 to each 
of the eighty-one Unitarian societies receiving it, towards 
the payment of their ministers' salaries. To complete 
the data it should be adfled, that these eighty-one 
churches, before the separation, numbered 5,182 mem- 
bers, of which the exiled portion were 3,900, and those 
who "tarried at home and divided the spoil " were 1,282. 
It is not pretended that this amount of property belonged 
exclusively to the Orthodox before the separation took 
place; they were joint-owners with the others, and had 
their share of its benefits. But as we are tracing out 
the results of this controversy in the varied fortunes 
which befell the contending parties, it is important to 
know, as a simple historical fact, that so many meeting- 



272 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

houses, built for orthodox worship, and such an amount 
of funds, devised for the support of Orthodox ministers, 
and which up to that time had been available for no 
other purpose, thenceforth not only ceased to support 
Orthodoxy, but was turned to the support of Unitarian- 
ism. Thus far, therefore, and in this particular, there 
was an immense loss to the former, and a corresponding 
gain to the latter. This does not include the funds be- 
longing to fifteen out of the ninety-six old Puritan 
churches that passed over to the other side without a 
schism ; nor does it take in the Orthodox endowments 
made to Harvard College before Unitarianism was heard 
of. These items added, would very much swell the 
pecuniary advantage derived to that party in the contro- 
versy. [See Appendix L] 

But in every other respect the gain was clearly on 
the other side. When the division was completed, it 
was found that the whole number of Congregational 
churches in Massachusetts was 544 (leaving out of the 
account such as had become extinct, or were merged in 
others), of which 135 were Unitarian and 409 Orthodox. 
Dropping those Unitarian churches which were origi- 
nally founded by the Orthodox, and which came into 
possession of meeting-houses built before the separation 
took place, and used for evangelical worship till that 
time, there remain but twenty-four as the fruit of Uni- 
tarian enterprise developed in church extension ; while 
the Orthodox during the same period had planted (or 
replanted, as the case might be) one hundred and 
ninety-three, and had actually built that number of 
meeting-houses, — which is sixty-seven more than be- 
longed to the whole body of Congregationalists before 
the separation. Thus the two parties stood in the com- 
parative number of their church es.when this fraternal 
strife ceased. The ratio between them was as one to 
three. In the number of church-members the disparity 
was far greater; from the most reliable data at com- 
mand, it may be given as one to ten. 

But this rapid increase of churches and church-mem- 
bers was not the only nor the greatest gain that inured 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 273 

to the evangelical side, in the progress of this contro- 
versy. The increase of faith and self-denial, of Christian 
enterprise, benevolence, spiritual life, and zeal for the 
truth, betokened a coming triumph, even when, in out- 
ward estate, the Orthodox interest seemed weakest. 
Never was the saying of Paul, " When I am weak, then 
am I strong," more fully illustrated, than when these 
churches, bereft of all temporalities, and denied redress 
at human tribunals, were forced to seek compensation 
in spiritual endowments, and to carry their appeal to 
the court of heaven. As the mountain oak grows 
stronger and strikes its roots deeper by exposure to 
wrenching winds, so did the cause of evangelical religion 
derive new vigor and strength from the violent assaults 
made upon it in the course of this controversy. Those 
struggles for dear life in which churches, scarcely able 
themselves to stand, were called upon to hold up others 
actually fainting, gave them incomparably more strength, 
more power of self-propagation, than all their lost meet- 
ing-houses and parish funds together could have done. 
It accustomed their sympathies to flow out toward the 
weak, by imposing on them the necessity of bearing one 
another s burdens. It taught them to give. "Who does 
not know that there is a habit of beneficence, as there 
is also a habit of parsimony, and that both are strength- 
ened by use? It is a significant fact, that nearly the 
whole family of benevolent societies whose birthplace 
is New England were born in these perilous times, 
amid the alarms of a war waged in defence of that re- 
ligious faith which gave them being. As the walls of 
Jerusalem were rebuilt with a trowel in one hand, and 
a sword in the other, so was constructed that system of 
religious charity through which these affiliated churches 
have ever since been 4i striving together for the faith of 
the Gospel," and acting together for the world's con- 
version. They owe much of their present efficiency to 
an outside pressure which they would gladly have 
thrown off — if they could — an " affliction," which at 
the time was "not joyous, but grievous." When would 
the Evangelical Congregational churches of Massa- 

18 



274 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

chusetts have reached the point of giving $200,000 per 
annum in diffusing the Gospel over the earth (as they 
are actually now giving), if they had not been schooled 
to it under the hard hand of necessity?* We cannot 
overestimate the value of these rough and painful ex- 
periences to our churches, considered merely as a prep- 
aration for the great work which Heaven has assigned 
them. 

Another advantage gained to the cause of evangelical 
religion from this controversy was a more discriminating 
and pointed style of preaching. The assertion has been 
made of late, that the doctrines of Orthodoxy were 
modified by the searching ordeal to which they were 
then subjected by their opponents, and the high tone of 
Calvinism lowered to a pitch not very offensive to Uni- 
tarian ears, — that this, in fact, was a "triumph," an 
" eminent victory," achieved on that side. (Ellis's 
Half Century, p. 41.) But the assertion wants proof. 
The facts which are supposed to prove it belong to a 
later date. No such pretence was set up at the time. 
The opposite was often enough asserted, and with suf- 
ficient bitterness. But that the mode of presenting 
these doctrines — in other words, the prevalent style of 
preaching them — underwent a change, there can be no 
doubt. It was a change from the indefinite to the dis- 
criminating ; from the dull enunciation of truth, to its 
earnest enforcement as a practical and personal concern ; 



* In 1850 the various evangelical denominations in the State con- 
tributed for missionary and other kindred objects, as follows : — 

Con^regationalists, . . . . $204,963 

Baptists, . . . . . . 58,360 

Episcopalians, ' . . . 28,998 

Methodists, ..... 13,186 

Others, . . . . . 2,491 

$307,998 

" From these figures it would seem that the Congregational churches, 
which number scarcely more than one third of all in the State called 
evangelical, contributed about two thirds of the amount." — Home 
Miss. Vol. XXIV. p. 269. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 275 

wherein the preacher's aim was, not only to convince 
the mind, but to convert the heart. " Revival preach- 
ing" was the name .sometimes given it, to denote its 
effect in producing those religious awakenings which 
also characterized the period of this controversy. Dr. 
Nettleton's style differed from that of his brethren only 
in its stronger developments of these traits. Dr. Grif- 
fin's Park Street Lectures give us a good illustration of 
what is here meant. Doctrinal preaching was a neces- 
sity forced upon all orthodox ministers by the unceasing 
assaults made upon their faith ; and these doctrines, 
pungently applied to the felt necessities of the soul, 
were " mighty through God to the pulling down of 
strong-holds. If the prominence given to this mode of 
preaching had been the only great result of the Uni- 
tarian controversy, it would have been richly remunerative 
to the cause of Orthodoxy, — an ample return for the 
sacrifice it cost. 

Having now followed the current of our ecclesiastical 
affairs to the point where the stream divides itself into 
two unequal parts, flowing in different directions, the 
design of this sketch requires that we keep in the old 
channel, down which we have come thus far, and 
confine our observations to the "Evangelical" Con- 
gregational denomination, as ours has since been gen- 
erally called, in distinction from the new sect eliminated 
from it. 

It is much to be regretted that a truthful account of 
this controversy cannot be given without reviving the 
recollection of some things which our Unitarian friends 
and ourselves alike would willingly forget. But they 
are self-registered facts, like volcanic eruptions and in- 
undations of the ocean in the physical world ; and as 
in the latter case, whatever new formations may super- 
vene, the geologist still finds the indelible foot-prints of 
fire and blood, which he is bound to notice in explain- 
ing the present phenomena of the earth; so in the for- 
mer will the historiographer of these Congregational 
churches find imperishable evidence of transactions and 
events which he cannot blink out of sight if he would, 



276 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

as the existing state of things. cannot be made intelligi- 
ble without referring to them. Far from us be the wish 
to reopen the dying embers of former strifes. But 
when God sends help in answer to the agonizing 
prayer ; when his afflicted people cry unto him " out 
of the depths," and are delivered, who shall forbid them 
to speak of "the horrible pit and the miry clay," from 
which His almighty arm has lifted them ? The wrongs 
inflicted upon them in the civil courts would have been 
passed over with the lightest possible step, as things 
which nobody now would think of defending ; but a la- 
bored vindication lately attempted in the "Half Century 
of the Unitarian Controversy " — a production of com- 
mendable fairness in the main points at issue — seemed 
•to require a fuller insight into the practical workings of 
the legal decisions which brought these wrongs upon us, 
and thereby infused more bitterness into the quarrel 
than all other causes combined. It has been presumed, 
of late years, that the decision of Chief Justice Parker, 
so far as it has had the force of judicial authority, was 
a dead letter, — "twice dead," and awaiting only a fit 
occasion to be " plucked up by the roots." But if, as 
now seems likely, its departed ghost is to be evoked, it 
concerns, not the Orthodox Congregationalists alone, but 
every denomination of Christians alike, to see to it and 
provide against it. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 277 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



1840-1857. 



One hundred and three churches gathered. — Extinct churches, various causes 
of. — Comparative view of the different denominations in Massachusetts. — 
Theological questions. — Moral reforms. — Church polity. — Pastoral Asso- 
ciation. — Congregational Library Association, its origin and aims. 

Having brought the history of these churches down 
to the end of 1840, in short periods of ten years each, 
the remaining incidents — too recent, as yet, to be 
wrought into history — will be thrown together in this 
one chapter covering seventeen years. The statistics, 
however, are as valuable now, as they ever will be, and 
are essential to a complete view of our present ecclesi- 
astical state. The one hundred and three Evangelical 
Congregational churches that have sprung up in Massa- 
chusetts during these last seventeen years, arose in the 
following order : — 

In 1841, the church in Blackstone, April 15; the 
Housatonic church in Great Barrington, June 18 ; the 
Russel church in Hadley, July 15 ; the Garden Street 
church, Boston, July 21 (subsequently united with the 
Green Street, and named the Messiah church) ; and the 
Winnisimmet church in Chelsea, September 20. 

In 1842, the South church in Springfield, March 23 ; 
the North church in Truro, May 22 ; the Mount Vernon 
church, Boston, June 1 ; the church in East Cambridge, 
September 8 ; the Union church in South Weymouth, 
November 1 ; the Second church in Whately, Novem- 
ber 10; the Central church in Fall River, November 16; 
the church in West Cambridge, December 14 ; and the 
Central church in Fairhaven, now disbanded. 

In 1843, the Third church in Fitchburg, January 26; 



278 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

a second church in Heath (now reunited with the 
first), in February ; the North church in Ashburnham, 
February 21 ; the North church in Orange, August 16 
(now disbanded) ; the Second Evangelical church in 
Milton, November 9 ; and the North church in Win- 
chendon, December 7. 

In 1844, the Leyden Chapel church, Boston, February 
8, chiefly composed of members from the Salem and 
Green Street churches, and worshipping in the house 
of the latter till 1846, when it disbanded ; the Spring 
Street church in Tisbury (Holmes Hole), April 18; the 
Church of the Pilgrims (now extinct), a re-organization 
of the original Garden Street church, July 15 ; the 
Harvard church in Brookline, August 26 ; the Pacific 
church in New Bedford, October 8 ; the church in 
Chester Factories, November 13; the church in Clinton, 
a colony from the Evangelical church in Lancaster, 
November 14; and the Maple Street church in Danvers, 
December 5. 

In 1845, the Kirk Street church, Lowell, a colony from 
the First, May 21 ; the Eliot church in Newton, July 1 ; 
the Payson church, South Boston, July 17 ; the East 
church in Charlemont, August 6 ; the South Evangeli- 
cal church in New Salem, August 15; the Shawmut 
church, Boston, gathered under the auspices of the City 
Missionary Society, November 20 ; and a church at 
Neponset Village, Dorchester. 

In 1846, the High Street church, in Lowell, January 
22; the Second church in Pittsfield (colored), February 
20 ; the Free church in Andover, May 7 ; the First 
church in Swam pscott, July 15; the present church in 
Alford, reorganized from the remains of the old, August 
13 ; the Second church in Huntington (formerly Ches- 
ter Village), August 26; the South church in Orange, 
gathered chiefly from the North church and Irvingsville, 
September 23; and the North church in Springfield, 
October 28. 

In 1847, the Bethesda church in Charlestown, Febru- 
ary 10 (subsequently disbanded) ; the Grantville church 
in Needham, February 24 ; the Puritan church in Sand- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 279 

wich, March 21 ; the Central church in Middleboro', 
March 25; the Second church in Palmer, April 1; the 
First church in Lawrence, April 9; the Jenksville church 
in Ludlow, January 6 (now disbanded) ; the Mystic 
church in Medford, July 6 ; the Central church in Dra- 
cut, July 25; and the Evangelical church in Hingham, 
December 21. 

In 1848, the Monument church in South Deerfield, 
January 25 ; the South church in Maiden, March 16 ; 
the church in Indian Orchard, Springfield, March 28 ; 
the Salem Street church in Worcester, June 15 ; the 
church in Melrose, July 11 ; and the Trinitarian church 
in Berkley, some time in September. 

In 1849, the Waquoit, or Second church in East Fal- 
mouth, January 3; the Edwards, church, Boston (now 
extinct), February 1 ; the Bethesda church in Reading, 
April 17 ; the Second church in Holyoke, May 24 ; the 
North church in Becket, September 25 ; the Trinitarian 
church in East Bridgewater, November 14 ; the Line- 
brook church in Ipswich, November 15; the North church 
in Woburn, November 22; and the Central church in 
Lawrence, December 25. 

In 1850, the Whitefield church in Newburyport, Jan- 
uary 1 ; the church in Shelburne Falls, March 6 ; the 
Porter Evangelical church in North Bridgewater, March 
6; the Mettineague church in West Springfield, June 
10 ; the South church in Pittsfield, November 12 ; the 
Auburndale church in Newton, November 14 ; and the 
Central church in Lynn, December 11. 

In 1851, the Haydenville church in Williamsburg, 
March 1; and the Broadway church in Chelsea, April 2. 

In 1852, the church in Sterling, January 22 ; the Pil- 
grim church in North Weymouth, March 11 ; the church 
in Assabet village, September 23; the church in Dana 
Centre, a reorganization of the Storrsville church in 
that village, September 28; and the Payson church in 
East Hampton, December 29. 

In 1853, the East church in Taunton, January 16 ; 
the Mather church on Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, 
February 15; the church in Somerville, May 3; and the 
Second church in Waltham, August 9. 



280 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

In 1854, the church in Hyannis, Barnstable, January 
3; the South church in Lynnfield, January 18; the 
church in Hanover, Four Corners, April 12 ; the Union 
church in North Brookfield, June 6; and the Ballard 
Vale Union church in Andover, December 31. 

In 1855, the Pilgrim church in Harwich Port, April 
3; the Second church in Rockport, March 15; the Phil- 
lips church in Watertown, April 17; the Second church 
in Ashfield, June 13; and the South church in Franklin, 
September 13. 

In 1856, the Second church in Westfield, May 22 ; 
and the Winthrop church in East Randolph, Decem- 
ber 30. 

In 1857, the Plymouth church in Chelsea, January 7; 
the Vine Street church in Roxbury, April 9 ; the.church 
in East Needham, May 6; the Holmes church in North 
Cambridge, September 23 ; and Church of the Unity, 
a secession from the Phillips church, South Boston, in 
November. 

Dropping from this list the twelve churches whose 
dissolution is indicated in the notice of their origin, 
there will remain ninety-one as the fruit of church ex- 
tension since 1840. Deducting ten others, previously 
organized, which also disappeared during the same 
time, and the present number of Evangelical Congre- 
gational churches in Massachusetts is 490. But while 
this is given as the exact number, the reader is at liberty 
to receive it with several grains of allowance. Indeed, 
he ought so to receive it, on account of the undetermined 
condition in which some of these churches are found. 
When the members of a church formally vote to dis- 
band, or to combine with another, there is a period put 
to their confederate existence, which admits of a precise 
date. Bat when, for any reason, there is a suspension 
of Christian ordinances, and the members disperse to 
other places of worship, or " forsake the assembling of 
themselves together" in anyplace, " as the manner of 
some is," there may, or may not, be a dissolution ; or if 
it come, it may be difficult to tell precisely when. Per- 
haps a resuscitation will ensue. Perhaps it will be 



i 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 281 

necessary to reorganize. But for the time being one 
hardly knows whether to count such a church with the 
living or the dead. 

The whole number of Congregational churches whose 
organization has been recorded in this sketch is 684 ; 
namely, 581 before the Unitarians were dropped, in 
1840, and 103 since that time. From this list fifty-nine 
have fallen out. The exit of so many churches of Christ 
would afford a sorrowful theme of reflection were we 
to count them lost, as some who read the statement 
may be inclined to do. But this is a wrong view. 
Eleven of these extinct churches were feeble remnants 
left behind when the evangelical portion withdrew from 
their respective parishes. After a consumptive existence 
of a few years as Unitarian churches, they disbanded, 
and the members, in most cases, were subsequently 
merged in orthodox assemblies. Their disappearance 
simply denotes a failure of Unitarianism in those par- 
ticular localities. A still larger number were reunited 
with the churches from which they had separated in a 
day of strife, — a return to duty, it may be, on the return 
of a better spirit. But the most numerous class of ex- 
tinct churches presents to our view, when the facts are 
examined, simply a process of absorption. Life, so far 
as a particular church is the exponent of spiritual life, 
has not expired, but only varied its conditions. The 
members, who had stood in a confederate relation to each 
other, have dissolved that relation, for some cause 
deemed by them sufficient, and are joined to other 
churches, where they sustain a similar relation. No less 
than eight of these fifty-nine extinct churches were lo- 
cated in Boston. Their dissolution, under the circum- 
stances, instead of being a loss, may have been a gain. 
The disappearance of some others has resulted from the 
depopulation of the places where they were originally 
located. Their dismemberment was providential and 
unavoidable. But the emigrating members went some- 
where, and probably joined some church. A few in the 
list, it must be sorrowfully confessed, came to their end 
as the seven churches in Asia Minor did, by losing 



282 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

their first love, and neglecting their first works, and dis- 
regarding the call to repentance and the warnings of 
God, till the candlestick w T as removed, and the church 
blotted out. Repentance — a change of heart and life 

— w r as wanted ; and when this could not be wrought 
by kind entreaty nor by Christian charity, the doom of 
Ephraim at length fell upon them — "joined to his idols, 
let him alone." 

At several periods in the course of this sketch, we have 
taken a comparative view of the different religious de- 
nominations, so far as might be done by enumerating 
their churches or religious assemblies. It may interest 
the reader to take one more, and see how the ecclesi- 
astical map of the State looks with its latest corrections. 
From the most authentic data at command, the enu- 
meration will stand thus, when reduced to naked figures : 

— Orthodox Congregationalists, 490 ; Episcopal Meth- 
odists, 277 ; Baptists, 266 ; Unitarians, 170 ; Universal- 
ists, 135; Episcopalians, 65; Roman Catholics, 64; 
Christ-ians, 37 ; Friends Meetings, 24 ; Free-will Bap- 
tists, 21 ; Protestant or Independent Methodists, 20 ; 
Second Adventists, 15 ; Wesleyan Methodists, 13 ; 
Swedenborgians, 11 ; Presbyterians, 7 ; Shakers, 4 com- 
munities; nondescript religious assemblies, that cannot 
be classed with any of the above, nor yet with one 
another, 12. TotaJ, 1,625 ; of which the Orthodox Con- 
gregationalists comprise nearly one third. 

As to the questions of theological controversy that 
have come into the last seventeen years, they are too 
recent — too green, as yet, for historical use: and it may 
be that in the process of seasoning, sufficient time being 
allowed for personal and party feeling to exude, they 
will suffer such a shrinkage that history will dispense 
with their use altogether. 

These years have been singularly prolific in moral 
reform enterprises, great and small, in which our Con- 
gregational churches and pastors have largely partici- 
pated. But these, too, must be left for time to test and 
label, as at length he will, with his own indelible mark 
of approval or rejection. 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 283 

One or two items bearing on our ecclesiastical polity 
deserve a fuller notice. As nearly every period in the 
past two hundred years has witnessed some abortive 
attempt at mending or remodelling our good old Con- 
gregational system, so has this last. A committee ap- 
pointed at a public meeting in Boston, May 29, 1844, 
" to take into consideration what measures are necessary 
for the reaffirmation and maintenance of the principles 
and spirit of Congregationalism," reported in the form 
of a printed " Manual of Church Principles and Disci- 
pline." This report was made, not to the meeting from 
which the committee received their appointment; nor 
to any other meeting; but to "The Congregational 
ministers and churches in Massachusetts" — with the 
hope expressed that it might also " be adopted beyond 
Massachusetts." 

Though the whole subject of church-government was 
laid open by the committee, their leading object evi- 
dently was to magnify the office-work of councils, and 
to strengthen the authority of their decisions. To do 
this without trenching on that first and fundamental 
principle of Congregationalism — the independent and 
self-governing power of the churches — had often been 
attempted before, and had always failed. It did so in 
this instance, and always must. The veritable old Cam- 
bridge platform (thanks to the committee) was printed 
as an appendix to their proposed " Manual ; " and in 
passing from one to the other, the reader experiences a 
feeling of disenthralment, — a grateful relief from need- 
less and perplexing restraints, — like one sailing on a 
broad, open sea, after descending a stream where snags 
and sawyers and sand-bars have kept him on a constant 
and anxious look-out. May it not be hoped that the 
next attempted change in our polity will be either 
the disuse of ecclesiastical councils altogether, except 
in cases where the fellowship of the churches is mainly 
to be expressed, as in the settlement and dismission of 
pastors, and the gathering of churches, or their em- 
ployment merely as referees? This change would 
bring us nearer to " the old paths " than any which has 



284 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

been proposed for the last hundred years ; and would 
probably give the churches more " rest," by imposing on 
each a stronger necessity for unanimity, — a point which 
John Robinson's flock always reached, through the labor 
and skill of the elders, before a decisive vote was taken 
on any important question.* 



* " In all church affairs, when the elders called for the vote of the 
brethren, they never called for a negative or contrary vote ; as judg- 
ing it would be the using of axe or hammer in temple-work ; only 
care was taken before the vote was called for in any case, to gain the 
consent of every brother ; and in case any could not actually vote, yet 
expressing that they could rest in the act of the church, it was satis- 
fying ; and this was a great preservation of the peace of the church." 
Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. IV. pp. 138, 139. 

This method of procedure appears to have been generally copied 
by the other churches, and is thus described by John Cotton in his 
" Way of the Churches," pp. 94-96. " When we say we do this or 
that with common consent, our meaning is, we do not carry on mat- 
ters either by the overruling power of the presbytery or by the con- 
sent of the major part of the church, but loy the general and joint 
consent of all the members of the church ; for we read in the Acts of 
the Apostles, the primitive church (which is a pattern for succeeding 
ages), carried all their administrations, ofiodvpadov, that is, with one 
accord, as becometh the church of God. But if it so fall out, that 
any difference do arise (as sometime there doth, through the remain- 
ing darkness of our minds, seeing we all know but in part), then such 
as do dissent from their brethren are required to propound the 
grounds of their dissent, which, if they be weighty, and held forth 
from the light of the word, all the rest do submit, and yield there- 
unto, not as to the voice of their brethren only, but as to the voice 
of Christ ; whose voice alone must rule in the church, and all the 
sheep of Christ will hear it, and all the upright in heart will follow it. 
But if the grounds of such as do dissent do upon due consideration 
appear to have little or no weight in them, the officers of the church, 
or some other of the brethren, do declare unto them the invalidity 
thereof. If they be satisfied, the matter in hand doth then proceed 
with the common consent of all. If they be not satisfied yet, it is 
either through want of light (and so through weakness of judgment), 
or through strength of pride, and so through stiffness of will." And 
here now comes the rub, as we should say. How are they to deter- 
mine which of these is the real impediment ? Thus ; " take further 
pains," — " lovingly inform them," — " patiently bear with them," — 
till at length they can either act with their brethren, or " for their 
part sit still." If they will do neither, it is taken as evidence that 
their dissent springs from " stiffness of will ; " and " the church doth 
proceed with common consent to admonish them of their pride and 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 285 

The Pastoral Association of Massachusetts, whose 
organization in 1824 was inadvertently overlooked when 
numbering the evangelical forces drawn out in the 
Unitarian controversy, underwent a change in 1853 
which deserves notice, as restoring an old and long-lost 
feature of Congregationalism. It is not a little remark- 
able that the Congregationalists of Massachusetts, whose 
plantation on these shores was a protest against prelacy 
and all hierarchal forms of church rule ; whose ecclesi- 
astical constitution has ever recognized the supremacy 
of the " brotherhood ;" and whose laymen embody more 
wisdom and intelligence than can be found in any other 



self-willedness, and to leave them under the censure of admonition, 
whereby the liberty of their voice is taken from them." 

The excellence of this " old way/' — bating the last step, perhaps, 
which Cotton assures us was " very rarely" taken, — must be apparent 
to every one, who will compare it with the modern way of rushing to 
an issue by a hasty vote, and then resorting to ,a council if anybody is 
dissatisfied. They, too, had councils when necessary ; and it is worth 
while, in this connection, to notice when and why and how they 
were employed. " But if it do appear," continues Mr. Cotton in the 
same paragraph from which the above is taken, " that the dissent, 
whether of one or more brethren, do arise from such darkness and 
intricacy of the matter in hand, as that the officers and members of 
the church do find themselves either unable to clear the matter fully, 
or at least unfit, in regard of some prejudice which may be conceived 
against them (which sometimes doth fall out, though very seldom), in 
such case, when the matter is weighty, and the doubt is great on both 
sides, then (with common consent) we call for light from other 
churches, and entreat them to send over to us such of their elders, or 
brethren, as maybe fit to judge in such a cause. Upon their coming, 
the church meeting together in the name of Christ, the whole cause, 
and all the proceedings in it, are laid open to them ; who, by the help 
of Christ, pondering and studying all things according to the rule of 
the word, the truth is cleared, a right way of peace and concord dis- 
covered and advised, and the spirits of the brethren on all parts com- 
fortably satisfied." In other words, when a difficulty arises, not from 
" the pride and stiffness " of parties in the church (such things they 
dispose of themselves), but from " the darkness and intricacy of the 
matters in hand," they request several neighboring churches each to 
send them an elder or a brother — they are not particular which, so 
he " be fit to judge in such a cause " — who go into church meeting 
with them and take part in their discussions, and are no doubt very 
helpful in " clearing" the matter — but how unlike our councils ! — 
[See Appendix II.] 



286 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

denomination of equal numbers ; should have suffered 
the direction and management of their affairs to fall so 
completely out of the hands of the laity into those of 
the clergy, as has happened among us during the last 
three quarters of a century. District associations em- 
bracing nearly all the ministers in the State ; a general 
association; a convention of Congregational ministers; 
all originating plans, and devising means, and proposing 
measures, for the well-being of the churches and parishes, 
with not a lay member of these same churches or par- 
ishes present, to utter his voice, or cast his vote ! To 
this array of clerical advisers, the Pastoral Association 
was added in 1824, which exerted a greater influence 
than either of the others, by its seasonable counsels and 
wise recommendations in the perilous times then pass- 
ing ; but no possible chance was given for the laity to 
participate in their proceedings, till the time came for 
carrying the decisions into effect ; then they were ex- 
pected to take their full share, — which they have always 
done. This way of doing things does not seem to have 
originated in any desire on the part of ministers to grasp 
at power, nor on the part of laymen to shirk responsi- 
bility. Perhaps all we can say of it is, that " it so hap- 
pened." But certainly it was not so in the beginning, 
nor through a long period this side. It could not have 
happened so a hundred years since. It ought not to be 
so now. It cannot long continue ; and the Pastoral As- 
sociation has the honor of taking the first decisive step 
towards its discontinuance, by merging itself and its 
main objects into another organization, designed to em- 
brace the whole body of Congregationalists, ministers 
and laymen. 

The movement was on this wise. An institution on 
a small scale, known as the Congregational Library 
Association, had been formed in Boston early in 1851, 
with a membership confined chiefly to that city and 
vicinity. The idea originated with a few reflecting 
minds, — foremost among whom was the late Professor 
Bela B. Edwards, — who had the discernment to see 
that a collection of our Puritan literature (wasting 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 287 

away continually by the ravages of time) might be of 
great service to this and to all coming ages, in perpetuat- 
ing those Puritan principles which have hitherto been 
to New England her chief glory, and to our Congrega- 
tional churches the prime elements of their power. The 
results of three years satisfied the members that their 
object was too important to be longer restrained within 
its present sphere of development; that they had hold 
of an idea which, with others naturally entwining 
around it, might be made the basis of a union as 
extended as the Puritan family, embracing objects of 
common interest and of vast importance to our whole 
denomination. Into these views the Pastoral Associa- 
tion entered heartily, laying aside its clerical constitu- 
tion that it might combine with the other in erecting a 
new structure on this extended scale, — which was ac- 
cordingly done in Boston, May 25, 1854, "at a large 
meeting of Congregational ministers and laymen, rep- 
resenting all the New England States, and many other 
parts of the country." The name previously selected 
for the body thus reorganized was " The Congregational 
Union," as more fully expressing the scope of the enter- 
prise. But inasmuch as that name was appropriated 
by another kindred institution formed at New York 
for another purpose before the time fixed for this re- 
organization had arrived, there was a cheerful return to 
the original name,* Congregational Library Association, 
as indicating a department of effort, than which no 
other will be more influential in securing all its great 
objects. Its membership already reaches into every 
State of the Union where Congregationalists are found ; 
while its quarterly and annual meetings afford oppor- 
tunities for ministers and laymen, — not as a confedera- 
tion of churches, for it has no shred of ecclesiasticism 
in it, but as individual Congregationalists, — to meet on 
common ground in the furtherance of whatever move- 
ment the providence of God or the wisdom of man 
may indicate for the general good. Leaving all eccle- 
siastical questions for the churches to settle, each by its 
own independent action, if it can, or by calling in a 



288 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

council, if it must, — the Congregational Library Asso- 
ciation aims to conserve and set forth the great princi- 
ples on which our ecclesiastical polity rests. Not an 
eleemosynary institution itself, it will nevertheless keep 
alive and quicken those vitalizing forces which underlie 
all our benevolent societies, — as the subsoil does the 
grain-producing loam, and which every farmer knows 
must be stirred occasionally, or production ceases. A 
general cooperation on such a basis, and for such an 
end, must have a powerful effect in assimilating the 
views, and harmonizing the action, of the whole wide 
spread family of Congregationalisms, — a desideratum 
all the more important as the time approaches, which 
every discerning mind sees to be near, when we are to 
be left by other kindred denominations who have 
hitherto acted with us, io do our part of the work of 
evangelizing the world by ourselves; to "teach all 
nations/' if we teach them at all, in our own way ; and 
to employ whatever moral, religious, or pecuniary capi- 
tal God has put at our disposal, in promoting the inter- 
ests of his kingdom through our own denominational 
agencies. And when that time arrives, it will be found 
of unspeakable advantage to have been recalling the 
achievements of the fathers, and studying their charac- 
ters and imbibing their spirit. 






IN MASSACHUSETTS. 289 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Practical reflections. — 1. Puritanism and Calvinism, the soul and body of 
New England Congregationalism. — 2. Originated, not in pride, but humil- 
ity. — 3. Wherein its efficiency resides. — 4. The process through which 
these churches have lapsed. — 5. Their recuperative power. — 6. Mear.- 
promoting their progress. — 7. Responsibility of the present generation. 

Those who have perused the foregoing pages unfold- 
ing the origin, progress, blacksliding, recovery, and 
present condition of these churches, have had their own 
reflections — each, it may be, different from those of 
every other. The author has also had his, which, in 
taking leave of the subject, he here records with the 
same honest freedom that is cheerfully acceded to all 
others. 

1. Calvinism, as a system oi religious faith, and Puri- 
tanism, as a code of morals (the two toughest things 
that ever entered into the composition of human char- 
acter) were the original soul and body of these Con- 
gregational churches: that unadulterated Calvinism 
which had been filtered of every Arminian particle by 
the Synod of Dort, whose ablest defender was John 
Robinson ; that religious Puritanism which had its best 
development after reaching these shores, and is to be dis- 
tinguished from a political sort that shot up on the other 
side of the water. Both these rare elements of power 
must be taken into the account, in forming a correct 
estimate of the genius and practical working of Xew 
England Congregationalism. It is quite too easily as- 
sumed that its appropriate fruits are the product of a 
mere form of ecclesiastical polity, and not also of the 
religious doctrines and moral duties that have been 
fostered beneath that form, — quite too readily inferred 

19 



290 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

that the like fruits will certainly grow wherevdt the 
same ecclesiastical polity is kept up. An apple tree, 
we may presume, will continue to bear apples so long 
as it produces anything; but their size and quantity 
and flavor, and consequently their value, will depend 
very much on the quality of the soil into which it 
strikes its roots. 

2. The independent democratic spirit of Congrega- 
tionalism, which some in our day speak of as " pride 
and pruriency," (in other days it was called " church 
rebellion,") more naturally betokens humility and self- 
abasement. Pride has created distinctions between 
churches and church-members and church officers ; 
but when was it ever known to set up for a leveller 
of such distinctions, as Congregationalism did ? The 
framers of this, as of every other form of church-gov- 
ernment, appealed to the Bible; but long before they 
had found the chapter and verse, they had found a 
God, so exalted in their ideas of him as to confound 
all other distinctions of rank, and reduce these human 
worms of the dust to an undistinguishable equality, — 
just as the stars, on account of their immense distance, 
seem to us equally distant and equally diminutive. 
As a matter of historical fact, this was the way they 
discovered the great doctrine that " all men are born 
free and equal," — a doctrine which had its first prac- 
tical development in the Congregational churches, and, 
subsequently through these, in the State. Congrega- 
tionalists may be proud, their churches arrogant, their 
ministers lordly ; but it is abhorrent alike to the spirit 
and the theory of their ecclesiastical system. 

3. The feature in this system of church-government, 
which other denominations call its weak point, is really 
the point on which its main efficiency ever has and 
always must depend. That feature is the juridical power 
vested in the brotherhood of each church, — the only 
'body recognized in our constitution as possessing such 
power in any form or degree. It were well if none but 
outsiders were in the dark on this subject. But the 
many attempts that have been made to erect some 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 291 

other ecclesiastical tribunal show that there are within 
the pale of Congregationalism itself, those who cannot 
comprehend its true genius. These attempts have 
usually been accompanied by the absurd protestations 
that nothing therein is intended against the independ- 
ence and self-controlling power of the churches, — as if 
one could turn a circle into a square, without destroy- 
ing its properties as a circle ! To substitute the Presby- 
terial or Episcopal rule for the Congregational is a 
thing quite easily done ; and those who desire to do it, 
will ever have the liberty. But to combine their dis- 
crepant elements into oneand the same system, which 
shall be kept in harmonious working order is impossible, 
as the facts in this sketch show. To concede that 
" every church has full power and authority ecclesias- 
tical within itself, regularly to administer all the ordi- 
nances of Christ, and is not under any other ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction whatsoever," and then proceed to erect a 
tribunal over the heads of these same churches, " for 
the rectifying of maladministrations," as was attempted 
by the synod of 1662, in their proposals for consocia- 
tion, and by others who have tried similar expedients 
since that time, is to organize strife, and " make 
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 
This is the source of all the weakness which other 
denominations find in our mode of discipline. This 
is that "rope of sand," which they sometimes speak 
of. Elements foreign to Congregationalism, and at 
war with its first principle, have, to some extent, 
crept in and deranged its natural working. But this is 
not the fault of the system. Just so far as the churches 
act with an intelligent appreciation of their rights, and 
pastors help rather than hinder them in such action, 
and councils adhere to their appropriate functions, there 
is no form of church polity on earth, more quietly or 
more efficiently administered ; as there is none whose 
machinery is less complicated or cumbersome. To 
recover fully, and maintain firmly, this primitive sim- 
plicity and power of Congregationalism, is an obliga- 
tion not sufficiently felt by the leading minds in our 



292 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

denomination. A horror of sectarianism is probably 
the cause. May that horror never be less ! But an 
impulse in this direction, so far from kindling a sectarian 
spirit, would be the most effectual means of keeping it 
down. 

4. The facts brought to view in this sketch, reveal a 
tendency in churches to lapse, — or, at least, to pass from 
a higher to a lower standard of faith and practice, — and 
suggest the only sure preventive. If there ever was a 
fraternity of churches on earth that seemed to be placed, 
by their position and character, beyond all danger of 
this sort, they were those which fled from the infected 
moral atmosphere of the old world to the untrodden 
shores of the new, purged, as they had been, by the 
fires of persecution, and most thoroughly evangelical 
in their views. Yet scarcely had the first generation 
passed away before signs of declension were seen ; and 
many a departing elder who still remembered "the 
days of old, the years of ancient times," left his dying 
admonition. These warnings, if not unheeded, were 
generally unavailing, and grew fainter as degeneracy 
increased, — a lower standard of morals all the while 
inducing a laxer theology, and vice versa. Thus did 
these Puritan churches gradually depart from the faith 
and practice of their founders, though not without fre- 
quent checks and self-reproaches ; till, by a continual 
divergence from the true orbit, gravitation turned the 
other way, and departure from old standards was reck- 
oned progress. However deplorable the fact, there is 
nothing new, nothing strange in it. The same tendency 
and the same results can be traced back through all 
time, — the people of God devoutly singing his praise, 
and then stupidly forgetting his works, till, wrought 
upon by some new reformative agency, they again 
renew their covenant vows, which again they gradually 
forget; while prophets and apostles and Christian mar- 
tyrs are beseeching them, with tears of earnestness, 
to be on their guard. "When will the admonition be 
heeded? When shall we once learn that " eternal vigi- 
lance " is the price, not of liberty only, but of pure re- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 293 

ligion ; and that the first divergent step is the one to 
be avoided, if we would effectually shun the perils of 
apostasy ? Especially " profitable for reproof, correc- 
tion, and instruction in righteousness," is the fact, that, 
in the defection of these Congregational churches, 
spiritual deadness preceded heretical doctrine, as the 
cause does the effect. Their creeds were Orthodox 
long after those Orthodox creeds ceased to have any 
religious vitality ; and in not a few instances they 
would have retained " the form of sound words " much 
longer, but for the glaring inconsistency between the 
profession of Calvinism and the practice of formalism. 
The practical lesson taught by this fact is, that heresy 
begins in the heart. Those ministers and churches, 
therefore, are most effectually guarded against hetero- 
dox theology, who are most jealously guarding against 
religious degeneracy. Dead Orthodoxy has been the 
inlet of the worst heresies that have ever infested these 
churches. 

5. But the most remarkable fact unfolded in the his- 
tory of these Congregational churches is their recupera- 
tive power, — a faculty of self-reformation and recovery. 
Three times have they been threatened with a dislodge- 
ment from their old Calvinistic foundation ; — first by 
the Antinomian heresy ; then by the Arminian ; and 
finally in their conflict with Unitarianism. And in 
each instance they were saved by an application of 
such forces as were found in their own religious faith and 
church polity. It is true, that in the last and most formi- 
dable of these encounters, they lost nearly a hundred 
churches, which, though founded on the primitive faith, 
were severally disfellowshipped when that faith was re- 
nounced ; but it was such a loss as the body suffers by 
the amputation of diseased and mortifying limbs, — a 
painful but indispensable means of preserving life. 
The defection was thereby arrested, and in almost 
every case, as also in some thirty others, where church- 
es left their meeting-houses and funds behind, and fled 
from Unitarian parishes to save their consciences and 
their faith, there has been a reestablishment of evan- 



294 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

gelical preaching, and more than the former measure of 
evangelical influence, if not in the same pulpit, yet in 
the same place, where Orthodoxy had been silenced. 
These facts certainly indicate a remarkable power of 
self-recovery, — a vigor of constitution, as we should 
call it in the human system, favoring the physician in 
his effort to throw off disease. This power, no doubt, is 
mainly the force of evangelical truth, always " mighty 
through God to the pulling down of strong-holds," and 
the building-up of feeble churches. But even the truth 
of God does not work out its full results without ap- 
propriate conditions and appliances. And we cannot 
doubt that the scriptural simplicity of our ecclesiastical 
order has been greatly helpful in accomplishing these 
marvellous results. Truth needs no decrees of ecumeni- 
cal councils to enforce her teachings ; no heavy artillery 
of prelatic conventions, or general assemblies, to help 
her beat down the strong-holds of error. These de- 
fences, moreover, can be just as easily turned against 
the truth, as they often have been — oftener, perhaps, 
than otherwise. Her spontaneous impulse is to put 
them all aside, as David did Saul's cumbersome armor 
when going to meet the giant of Gath. She seeks an 
open field, and the untrammelled use of her own heaven- 
appointed sling and stone. This is just what she found 
among the Congregational churches of Massachusetts, 
in the day of her battle here. May she find it every- 
where, and be always as victorious! 

6. The past history of these churches inspires the 
most animating hope of their future progress, and is 
itself an efficient means of securing it. The remem- 
brance of John Robinson and his achievements ; of 
New England's founders and their fortitude ; of the 
first Congregational churches planted on these shores, 
and their invincible faith, will act on their successors 
through all coming time, as an incentive to piety and a 
rebuke to degeneracy. These moral forces, lying latent 
in our history, have been repeatedly evoked in past 
times of peril with great effect. The "Reforming sy- 
nod" of 1679 was ushered in by the recall of the pub- 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 295 

lie mind and conscience to the piety of a former age. 
The venerable Increase Mather, with a few coevals 
whose personal " converse with the first planters of this 
country " added weight to their words, apprehensive that 
the glory was departing from New England, uttered 
their warning voice in appeals like the following: "In 
the last age, in the days of our fathers, scarce a ser- 
mon preached but some evidently converted, and some- 
times hundreds in a sermon. Which of us can say we 
have seen the like ? The body of the rising generation 
is a poor, perishing, unconverted, and (except the Lord 
pour down his Spirit) an undone generation." " We are 
the posterity of the good old Puritan non-conformists in 
England, who were a strict and holy people. Such 
were our fathers, who followed the Lord into this wilder- 
ness. O New England! New England! look to it 
that the glory be not removed from thee ! for it begins 
to go ! O tremble, for it is going ; it is gradually de- 
parting ! " The consequence was a solemn recovenant- 
ing, a general revival, and " a great addition of con- 
verts." 

Similar appeals, enforced by the same class of facts, 
were employed in promoting that wonderful work of 
God near the middle of the last century. At the in- 
stance of President Edwards, a weekly periodical, — 
" The Christian History," — was issued at Boston for 
the space of two years from March, 1743. And no less 
than six of the early numbers were devoted to the his- 
tory of New England's first settlers. The leading minds 
to whom God entrusted the human management of that 
" great awakening " could think of nothing better suited 
to the times than a review of that primitive type of 
piety and those Puritan revivals which are recorded in 
this sketch. And most salutary was its influence in 
promoting that gracious work, by defending it on the 
one hand against designing foes, and on the other 
against disorderly but well-meaning friends. In still 
later and more perilous times, we have seen the " Spirit 
of the Pilgrims " invoked with the same happy results. 
Many who read this page will remember when the con- 



296 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 

scientious adherence of these churches to the religious 
doctrines and practices of their founders was called big- 
otry, — a word that drove people away from their ranks, 
or frightened them into silence. But where is the man 
now, with the blood of the Pilgrims in his veins, and 
their spirit in his heart, who could be terrified by that 
harmless word, or would object to passing for such a 
bigot, if to avoid it he must stand before heaven and 
earth as a recreant to the principles of such fathers ? It 
was once thought strange, and by those too who could 
go to Plymouth Rock annually to celebrate the deeds 
of their Puritan ancestors, that anybody should care to 
preserve that Puritan religion which gave birth to those 
deeds, and which alone can reproduce them. But there 
is a larger number now, who think it more strange that 
intelligent men and women, of consistent views on all 
other subjects, should hold such absurdities on this, — 
like silly children regaling themselves on the delicious 
fruit of a tree in their father's orchard, which, in their 
childish reasonings, would be just as fruitful if the trunk 
and roots were gone. Thus it is that the historic me- 
moirs of our fathers not only render the faith through 
which they " subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, 
and obtained promises " dear to those who still hold it, 
but also arm them with fresh courage in its defence, 
and gain new converts to its side. 

7. And this suggests, as a concluding reflection, that 
the present generation of New England Congregation- 
alists owe a debt to the world which they have not dis- 
charged. There is a vast amount of moral and religious 
capital lying in our hands unemployed, and wasting by 
neglect, which would yield a large percentage in aid of 
all our moral and religious enterprises, if properly hus- 
banded and put to use. It consists in the wide spread 
and increasing reverence now felt for the fathers of New 
England and founders of her Congregational churches, 
— a sentiment predisposing mankind to accept of their 
teachings, and be led by their example, so far as these 
can be clearly pointed out. The responsibility of doing 
this is laid upon us. It is ours to " stand in the way, 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 297 

and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good 
way," not only for our own safe guidance, but that 
others also may "walk therein, and find rest to their 
souls."* God and man are expecting it of us. The 
apathy that reigns in our communion touching this sub- 
ject is amazing* The ignorance and misconception 
that prevail among the mass of our members respecting 
the real character and principles of the Puritan fathers 
is humiliating, and would be unaccountable, were it not 
known that those who have been foremost of late years 
in proclaiming to the world their deeds have generally 
had the least sympathy with their religion. Jt would 
be a work of preeminent piety, and productive of im- 
mense issues, were the pastors of these churches and 
their gifted laymen to explore this field in the light of 
original documents, and lay bare the facts just as they 
are. It would be doing the cause of evangelical religion 
an incalculable service thus to connect the " mighty 
deeds " of our fathers with the " faith and hope " from 
which they sprang. And when historians, reviewers, 
lyceum lecturers, and writers of newspaper paragraphs, 
are continually representing that the chief excellences of 
the Puritan's character, and the heroism of his conduct, 
instead of springing from his religious faith, shot up in 
spite of it, can we, who hold " like precious faith," be 
content to remain in such ignorance of the facts, as not 
to be able intelligently to contradict it ? 

There is indeed a waking up to this subject just now 
— a conviction of duty fastening on some earnest minds, 
and a slight enthusiasm of interest kindling in others — 
which promises important results. While dusty anti- 
quarians and curiosity hunters are on the alert, catching 
up and carrying off (but for no practical use) whatever 
of our Puritan literature they can lay hands on, there are 
found, here and there, an evangelical minister or layman, 
gleaning from the same field with equal zeal, and for an 
infinitely higher purpose. While statesmen and civilians 
are descanting on the inextirpable spirit of liberty that 
animated the founders of New England, voices are be- 
ginning to be heard proclaiming the long-forgotten fact, 



298 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

that it sprang from their piety, fed, as it confessedly was, 
by the Genevan theology. While the mass of our 
church-members are extolling the fruits of the Puritan 
faith and practice, as now developed in the private vir- 
tues, public morals, benevolent societies, and revivals of 
religion, there is beginning to be felt in some reflecting 
minds a care for the tree itself which produces these 
fruits, le£t it shrivel into barrenness through neglect of 
culture. These are auspicious tokens. Should they 
become general, — should the entire Congregational 
family but catch this spirit and keep it alive, — a vital- 
izing force would be brought into play, which all Chris- 
tendom would feel. 



APPENDIX. 



I. — See page 272. 

REPORT ON EXILED CHURCHES. 

[A very laudable desire not to uncover the dying embers of 
former strife is understood to have been the reason why the 
" Report on Exiled Churches/' made to the General Association 
in 1836, was not published at the time. The scenes therein 
described were of recent occurrence ; the localities well known ; 
the actors, in most cases, could be easily identified. Perhaps 
it was well to let the matter rest where it did, in the repose of 
an unprinted document, so completely buried out of sight that 
its existence was questioned, till it was found among the collec- 
tions of the Congregational Library Association. But historical 
facts do not belong to the age alone in which they were enacted ; 
much less are they the exclusive property of those who enacted 
them. The world is at school, under the training of Provi- 
dence, and history is one of our teachers. It argues illy for 
human nature, to conclude that this daguerreotype of our 
churches, taken at the only time when some important phases 
could have been preserved, — these oppressive experiences 
which they evidently record not so much in grief at oppression 
as in gratitude for deliverance, — must always be kept out of 
sight for fear of giving offence to somebody. Let us charita- 
bly presume that the following general views, slightly abridged 
from the closing pages of the report, will be as inoffensive to 
all members of Unitarian societies now, as the facts and rea- 
sonings are irrelevant to their present position.] 



300 APPENDIX. 



General Summary. 
It appears, then, that not less than eighty-one of the present 
evangelical churches of Massachusetts have been constrained 
to separate from the religious societies with which they were 
formerly connected ; it is possible, too, that some others of 
the same class may have been overlooked in this enumeration. 
Of these eighty-one, forty-six appear to "have been driven 
from their houses of worship by town or parish votes, or by 
measures equivalent to such votes ; " and thirty-five have been 
constrained by conscience to secede, in their individual capacity, 
and become organized as distinct churches. Between the two 
• classes, however, there is no essential distinction, only that the 
first includes all churches where the majority of the members 
withdrew, and the second, all those where a larger or smaller 
minority refused any longer to sit under an unfaithful ministry. 

Measures used to dispossess them of their rights. 

These measures have been almost as various as the cases in 
which they have been employed are numerous. The object of 
their adversaries, however, has been invariably the same, — to 
put down orthodoxy, " peaceably if they could, forcibly if they 
must. ,, The necessary measures have of course been modi- 
fied by the relative strength of the parties, by the amount of 
intelligence overspreading the community, and by the general 
habits of the people in conducting matters of controversy. A 
few brief extracts from some of the reports will furnish what- 
ever information is necessary on this point. 

Says one of these reports : " The measures for dissolving the 
contract with the Orthodox minister were devised at tavern 
caucusses. By two individuals every voter in the parish was 
conversed with and flattered with the assurance of accessions of 
strength to the parish if the old minister should be exchanged 
for a new one." 

" Unitarianism obtained the ascendency," says another report, 



APPENDIX. 301 

" by calling in the votes of many, who had not attended any 
kind of town meeting for fifteen or twenty years. One man 
was hired to vote by having his town tax paid for him ; another, 
for two shillings, besides as much as he would drink." 

In a third case " the most unworthy measures were used to 
procure the votes of persons against the Orthodox, who never 
heard the minister, and of some who never saw him." 

" In the proceedings against the church," says another report, 
" there was much uufairness ; all the wicked were called out, 
and votes purchased with money." 

By another report it is stated, that, " to procure votes against 
the church at the time of their expulsion, meetings were held 
at a public-house, to induce young men, and lovers of strong 
drink, to give their votes against the man, whose ministry had 
been followed by a revival two or three years before." 

" To secure voters against the Orthodox," says another, 
" flattery, threats, brandy, rum, gin, and other like irresistible 
arguments, were employed in abundance." 

The following extracts are made indiscriminately : — 

" Men who had not seen the inside of a meeting-house for 
years came eagerly to the spoiling of Zion." 

" Voters were brought in who were legal voters in the other 
societies ; and other voters in the case had not been twice in 
the meeting-house for worship in twelve years." 

" To dispossess the church of the pulpit and house, persons 
were brought in to vote, who had no legal right ; and others, 
who had signed off, came to sustain the opposition in their 
efforts to secure the house." 

" In obtaining the meeting-house, voters were illegally re- 
ceived from other towns, and many town voters of the society 
were arbitrarily rejected." 

" Some individuals of another denomination withdrew their 
certificates that they might be entitled to vote ; and several 
voters were made expressly for the occasion ; a large majority 
of those who habitually met for religious worship, voted with 
the church." 



302 APPENDIX. 

" Many who never attended a parish meeting were prevailed 
on to come and vote for the exclusion of the Orthodox." 

" Opposition at first was violent. No place could be obtained 
for religious meetings except a private house ; and, at present, 
there is but one district where the school-house can be had for 
religious meetings. It is next to martyrdom, now, in many 
cases, to come out from Unitarianism." 

" When the Orthodox society was formed, a meeting was 
called to consult on measures to crush them at once ; not suc- 
ceeding thus they dismissed their aged minister, and obtained 
violent Unitarian and Universalist preachers." 

With a very few exceptions, the writers of the reports from 
which the foregoing abstracts are made, have declined entering 
into details on this point, through an unwillingness to revive 
distressing recollections, and fasten a stigma on those that 
have injured them ; and they have commonly passed it over 
with some general remark as to the strength, violence, or un- 
compromising character of the opposition they have encoun- 
tered, adding, " there has been nothing in it peculiar." And it 
is doubtless true, that the prominent characteristics of the op- 
position have been uniform in all parts of the State, — not to 
say in all parts and ages of the world. 

Party strife rises higher on no subjects than those involving 
man's relations to God and eternity. Here every man is 
thrown upon his own responsibilities, and constrained to form 
his opinions and shape his character without reference to the 
opinion or character of others in view only of those revelations 
from heaven, which are equally open and important to all men. 
The questioning of opinions, and the impeachment of character, 
formed under the weight of those responsibilities, is necessarily 
offensive to every mind not yet brought into captivity to the 
obedience of Christ. And the fact that this strife has pro- 
ceeded no further, and produced results no more disastrous to 
the general harmony of society in our own Commonwealth, 
may be traced directly to the influence of that meek and lowly 
spirit which forms the sweetest ornament, as well as the resist- 



APPENDIX. 303 

less energy, of the evangelical system. Forbearance and love, 
mingled with firmness and self-denial, we are happy to say, 
have strongly marked the course of our churches while under 
oppression. 

The illiberal spirit that has prevailed among us for some 
years past under various imposing names is not a new thing 
under the sun ; nor to those familiar with the history of the 
church could it have been unforeseen nor surprising. The 
enmity of the world cannot sleep when the piety of the church 
awakes. Evangelical religion can never put forth her energies 
as she had begun to do when the Spirit of the Lord came down 
upon Zion more than forty years ago, and commenced a series 
of revivals in New England, that will never cease till millennial 
glory bursts upon the world, without arousing the wrath of her 
enemies, and concentrating their efforts, under the direction of 
their great master, to the point of defeating her enterprise, and 
holding the earth still in bondage to hell. Had this spirit in its 
movements been manly and dignified, however firm and un- 
compromising, it would have commanded a measure of respect, 
mingled with tender concern for its consistency with the prin- 
ciples from which it sprang ; but when degenerating into fanati- 
cal intolerance, and glorying in the least honorable artifices for 
the accomplishment of its ends, it fully merits all the loathing 
of soul felt for it, and all the censure now attached to it by 
common consent. 

Origin of these Measures. 
Says a venerable father yet living — himself ejected from 
the care of a flourishing church that he greatly loved — " The 
preaching that drew forth the opposition was the very same in 
substance which excited a world lying in wickedness to oppose 
and persecute the prophets who faithfully preached the preach- 
ing which God had bidden them; which excited the scribes and 
pharisees and the whole gentile world to oppose and persecute 
Christ and his apostles ; the Catholics to oppose and persecute 
the Protestants ; the established Church of England to oppose 



304 APPENDIX. 

and persecute our pilgrim fathers, and drive them to this Amer- 
ican wilderness ; the same which, in all parts of Christendom, 
has excited opposition and persecution, in a greater or less 
degree, against the meek and humble followers of the Lamb of 
God, and more especially those who have boldly preached the 
Gospel of Christ, and have not shunned to declare the whole 
counsel of God." 

Doubtless these measures have, in most cases, originated in a 
deep-rooted aversion to the great system of evangelical truth, 
in a determined spirit of resistance to unwelcome restraints on 
the licentious dispositions of the heart, and in a fixed hostility to 
the enlargement of that kingdom which is not of this world, 
rather than in any sober conviction that the system to be sus- 
tained by them embraces the truth of the Bible. If we mis- 
take not, this is clear from the fact, made evident by the reports, 
that their authors and supporters are not united by any common 
bond of faith ; that their apparent harmony in counsel and 
action relates to the single point of opposition to orthodoxy ; 
and that, in " the division of the spoils " consequent on victory, 
they commonly fall into bitter envyings and collisions among 
themselves, which bring as little of honor as of profit to either of 
the parties concerned. To possess themselves of the property, 
and of other rights of the Orthodox in the houses of public 
worship, and of the funds bequeathed by their ancestors, or 
accumulated by their own liberality and economy for the sup- 
port of the ordinances of religion, appears to be most frequently 
the ruling motive in sustaining the system of oppression, — for 
we have yet to learn, that after this object is secured any special 
effort is ever made to convince the Orthodox of their doctrinal 
errors, and persuade them to embrace the faith and follow the 
example of those that have despoiled them of their goods. 

Advantages possessed hy the Authors of these Measures. 
Great advantages for prosecuting these measures have been 
found in the late existing laws of the Commonwealth, in the sin- 
gular construction put upon those laws and upon the consti- 



APPENDIX. 305 

tution, by our civil magistrates ; and in the ready cooperation of 
some members of the smaller denominations of professedly 
evangelical Christians. And other advantages have been found 
in the too prevalent neglect of public worship by members of 
the church and their families, in the increasing laxness of disci- 
pline in many of the churches ; in their too parsimonious support 
of the ministry ; in their fierce contentions about matters of 
doubtful speculation ; and in the encouragement they have 
yielded to their pastors to extend the hand of fellowship to those 
that had swerved from the faith once delivered to the saints. 
A further advantage has been found in the character of the 
preaching that had been enjoyed, or rather endured, by many 
of our churches, in some previous period of their history. The 
course of public instruction in some of them appears to have 
been moderately Calvinistic, but deficient in clearness of dis- 
crimination, in fervency of address, and boldness of application. 
In others, Arminianism had filled the pulpit in former years, and 
prepared the way for the introduction of that spirit which aims 
to strip the church of her distinctive character, and subject her 
to the vassalage of the world. In others still, truth and error 
had so blended their colors before the eye of the pastor, and 
poured their jarring influences on the congregation so bounti- 
fully as to leave them an easy prey to a watchful adversary. 
But, almost invariably, a low state of piety prevailed in the 
church, driven from her sanctuary and robbed of her sacred 
utensils. Though their last pastor may have been a man full 
of faith and good works, his predecessor perhaps was less ex- 
emplary and less bold in defence of the truth, and the leaven of 
hypocrisy, or carnal policy, or worldliness of spirit, had wrought 
mischief which nothing but the hand of an enemy could remove. 
These, though not all, are some of the obvious advantages seized 
by the adversary to spoil the church of her pleasant things. 

Encouragement and consolation. 
The history of these " deprived churches " is replete with en- 
couragement to the friends of evangelical truth. Many have 

20 



306 APPENDIX. 

been appalled by the formidable array of means employed to 
crush them, and by the sufferings they have actually endured. 
But though they have passed through the fire, the flame has 
not kindled on them; and through the waters, they have not 
overflowed them. The fiery trial has only purged away the 
dross and the tin. The floods have only washed their garments 
clean. The arm of the Lord has been made bare in defence of 
the persecuted church. Though turned away from the doors 
of their sanctuaries, and cut off from their pecuniary resources 
in many instances, and their very name made a proverb and 
by-word at the corners of the streets, they have yet strengthened 
themselves in the Lord, and proceeded to the rebuilding of their 
broken down walls, and the reestablishment of those ordinances 
which they had before scarcely known how to appreciate. New 
sanctuaries have soon arisen, the table of the Lord has again 
been spread, the servant of God has come among them in the 
spirit and power of Elias, the Holy Ghost has descended, con- 
verts have multiplied, members have been added to the church, 
and joy has been diffused through all the courts of heaven. 

The assailing party has rarely been able long to maintain its 
ground, unless when aided by ample funds. So long as the 
means furnished in other years can be made to avail for the 
support of an unevangelical ministry, they may continue their 
forms of worship, but their congregations are usually small com- 
pared with the whole amount of population claimed as theirs, 
and their increase is on the descending ratio. 

It is the remark of a respected brother of the committee, in 
reference to the ground covered by the association with which 
he is connected, but equally applicable to the whole State, 
" The Unitarian cause is on the wane. It is not that scheme 
of error which will succeed. There is very much among us 
which is neither piety nor truth, but it is not Unitarianism. 
Rather it is infidelity and indifference to all religion, — neglect 
of all religious institutions. I presume we shall have no other 
church exiled from the sanctuary in this region by the arm of 
Unitarians." It is true that the past triumphs of Unitarianism 



APPENDIX. 307 

have prepared the way for the present successes of Universal- 
ism and infidelity ; and not a few of the sanctuaries that have 
been wrested from the hands of the Orthodox have passed into 
the custody of men whose errors are palpably demoralizing. 
But it is by no means certain, that, in the hands of those who 
now occupy them, they will prove more injurious to Zion than 
in the hands of a more popular denomination. 

It is pertinent to say in this connection, that the existence of 
a prosperous evangelical society promotes the temporal as well 
as the spiritual interests of the whole community over which its 
influence extends. Its example of regular attendance on the 
ordinances of God provokes the emulation of other denomina- 
tions, and induces a general respect for the Lord's day, and for 
the forms of religious worship, that operates kindly on the moral 
and social habits of the whole population. Its established char- 
acter for piety imposes a salutary restraint on the vicious ten- 
dencies of society, and powerfully checks intemperance, profane 
ity, and licentiousness. And that spirit of beneficence which? 
forms the lifeblood of every truly evangelical church freely 
pours its blessings on the poor at home and abroad, sustains 
every judicious effort for the intellectual and moral improvement 
of the rising generation, and contributes to dignify and elevate 
the social character of the entire community. The testimony 
of one, whose impartiality in this case none can question, is 
quite in point. He affirms, as the result of accurate obser- 
vation, " that the Calvinistic people of Scotland, of Switzerland, 
of Holland, and New England, have been more moral than the 
I same classes among other nations; and that those who preached 
faith, or, in other words, a pure mind, have always produced 
more popular virtue than those who preached good works, or 
the mere regulation of outward acts." [Mackintosh.] 

The recent excitement against evangelical religion, therefore, 
which has perplexed and distressed many of our churches, has 
been productive of no small benefit to society, for it has increased 
their numbers, planted them in the most favorable circumstances 
for the exertion of a wide and controlling influence, and imparted 



308 APPENDIX. 

to them an independence and* energy which their enemies can 
no more gainsay nor resist. 

The result of the observations of another brother of the com- 
mittee deserves a place here : " The evangelical societies em- 
brace a majority of the sober, temperate, and devout sort of 
people ; the most full attendance on public worship is found in 
them, especially in unfavorable weather; the new settlers in 
these towns more generally fall into them ; they have the ap- 
pearance of thrift and increase." The same facts are corrobo- 
rated by the almost unvarying testimony of every brother who 
has been in correspondence with your committee. Whoever 
has a respect for vital piety, and whoever is an unflinching 
friend of order and morality, unites with an evangelical society, 
if there be one within his reach, because there he finds con- 
sistency between principle and profession, doctrine and practice ; 
and because there religion is uniformly treated as a concern of 
infinite moment, — its duties observed, and its spirit carried out 
into action, with a zeal and fidelity that put formality to the 
blush, and confound unbelief with all its evil doings. 

Another result of this excitement, that deserves to be noticed 
more particularly, is its influence on the increase of Sabbath 
congregations. A new zeal for the house of God is excited, 
even among the opposers of the truth ; new efforts are made to 
keep up a suitable complement of worshippers ; they lose much 
of their abhorrence of weekday religious exercises, and their 
fear of being righteous overmuch ; they even lose much of their 
dread of Sabbath schools and Bible classes, of evening lectures, 
and missions both foreign and domestic. Can this surprising 
change of views (if it be lasting) fail to be productive of great 
and happy consequences? 

And, beside this, it is undeniable that the same excitement 
has produced extensively a more ardent spirit of inquiry into 
the great doctrines of the gospel, a more fervent love among the 
brethren, increased prayerfulness and liberality, and a more 
uniform course of pious and self-denying duty. Nor can we be 
surprised if the result prove, as it commonly does, that religion 



APPENDIX. 309 

in its revival blesses the whole community, extends into neigh- 
boring parishes, and makes its influence felt on the other side 
of the globe. 

Those who have encouraged the spirit of disorganization and 
violence, in its movements against our evangelical churches, 
anticipating from it their overthrow, have little reason to con- 
gratulate themselves on past successes. More full and satisfac- 
tory evidence than is had cannot be desired of the utter futility 
of all attempts to crush them by a course of overbearing oppres- 
sion. The more they are pressed on every side, the stronger 
is their faith, the more lofty their bearing. We hazard nothing 
when we affirm that the indirect operation of the measures 
adopted to break down evangelical influence has been decidedly 
favorable to its increase and permanency. The evangelical 
churches of Massachusetts have not occupied so high vantage 
ground for sustaining themselves and the cause of their Re- 
deemer, for eighty years, as they occupy at this moment. Their 
common trials have compelled them to see eye to eye. They 
have been taught most cogently that their strength lies in har- 
monious counsels and united action ; that they have abundant 
reasons for mutual confidence ; and they possess a latent energy, 
which cannot be called forth and directed aright without insur- 
ing their triumph over every adversary. Hence they have 
occasion to rejoice, even though for a season they have been in 
heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of their 
faith, being much more precious than the gold that perisheth, 
though it be tried with fire, will be " found unto praise and 
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ ; " and well 
may their enemies tremble, when they look forward to the day 
of final retribution, and remember the declared purpose of the 
Most High, that the wrath of man shall praise him, and that the 
remainder of wrath he will restrain. 

The progress of error. 

The pathway of the errorist, however devious, is short, and 
soon lands its traveller in the region and shadow of death. 



310 APPENDIX. 

Slight deviations from the simplicity of the truth at the outset, 
though they create but little alarm, yet, unless early and power- 
fully checked, involve, by necessity, still greater .ultimate devi- 
ations ; and nothing but the mighty power of God will prevent 
them from issuing in the abandonment of every essential article 
of Christian faith, and in the cordial embrace of error in its 
most loathsome forms. " Facilis descensus averni." A fair 
illustration of this sentiment is furnished by the history of Uni- 
tarianism in our own Commonwealth, — a history into whose de- 
tails we cannot enter here. 



The means by which it has been arrested. 

We have precious tokens of God's favor to Zion in the various 
means prepared in his providence for opposing an early and 
effectual resistance to the encroachments of error. It will be 
acknowledged that it had gained great strength before it threw 
off the mask, and stood forth confessed, the antagonist of evan- 
gelical religion. The great men and the rich men, the wise and 
the learned, the maker of the laws and the judge, with no in- 
considerable portion of men in the lower walks of life, were 
already among its devoted friends. And the bold confidence 
with which it urged its pretensions, the facility with which it 
could accommodate itself to the various characters and preju- 
dices of men, and the power which it actually possessed while 
wielding the civil arm to crush its opponents, seemed to promise 
it a triumphant progress through the land. But, 

1. At this hour of darkness, God inspired some of his ser- 
vants in the ministry with the resolution to " come forth and 
be separate, to touch no more the unclean thing ; " and, what- 
ever might be the consequences to themselves, to withhold the 
customary tokens -of ministerial, fellowship from men denying 
the Lord that bought us. This measure, though not at once 
adopted by all the evangelical ministers, drew the line of de- 
marcation fairly between the opposing interests, and decided the 
course of the respective churches. The eyes of many that had 



APPENDIX. 311 

been blind were opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, by 
it. Problematical at first, the results of the measure fully justi- 
fied its expediency, as the plain command of heaven justified 
its rectitude. Perhaps this, more than any thing else, has pre- 
served our churches from the fate of the Presbyterian and 
Independent churches of England. 

2. In the establishment of that Theological Seminary (An- 
dover) which is already exerting so wide and mighty an influ- 
ence on the destinies of Zion, we have further proof of God's 
merciful care of our churches. There first began to be supplied 
those defects in theological education which rendered a large 
proportion of the most faithful ministers then in the field unable 
to meet the enemy on his own ground and foil him with his 
own weapons. The original languages of Sacred Writ had been 
little studied, and the principles of exegetical interpretation but 
little understood. Our ministry, however undeservedly, had 
become the laughing-stock of the enemy, into whose ranks had 
fallen a few men either truly learned or pretending to be so ; 
and it was only the provision heaven kindly made through the 
then unparalleled liberality of a few individuals to increase the 
amount of scriptural knowledge among the evangelical ministers, 
that their laughter was turned into mourning and their joy into 
heaviness. From this root of the tree of life, planted on a con- 
genial soil, have sprung many trees of righteousness, that have 
again struck their roots deep, and spread their branches wide, 
and put forth many leaves for the healing of the nations. All 
this occurred just at the time when this kind of influence was 
most needed to roll back the swelling tide of error. 

3. It was at the same juncture, and in pursuance of the same 
gracious purposes of God, that Park Street church was organ- 
ized in Boston with the avowed design of counteracting the 
popular error. The fears and the tremblings, the strong crying 
and tears, of that " day of blasphemy and rebuke," are still had 
in remembrance by many who live, and by more who have 
gone to their rest. That, however, was the signal staff to which 
many thousand eyes were at once directed, and from which 



312 APPENDIX. 

they desired instruction and encouragement with regard to 
their own duty. From that hour evangelical churches have 
multiplied, and every effort to suppress them has but increased 
them yet more and more. 

4. Nor in this cursory glance at the past can we overlook 
the influence of the press, — ordained of heaven to take the 
place of the gift of tongues, and work its miracles of mercy. 
Who can remember, but with gratitude to heaven, the labors of 
the Panoplist, and the more recent labors of the Spirit of the 
Pilgrims, and the Christian Spectator, by which the field of 
controversy was overspread with imperishable laurels, and 
finally won. These publications diffused a mass of information 
and of motive to inquiry and action which could not be lost, 
and which in fact settled public opinion extensively and firmly 
on the eternal ground of truth. 

5. And last, though not least among the instrumentalities 
brought into operation by the great head of the church, at the 
same juncture, were the Domestic Missionary Societies of New 
England. The Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts 
originated with this body, and has ever since been cherished by 
it, though for a few years under another name. And why was 
it originated at all ? Why, but to recover those waste places 
where the deadly nightshade had been planted by the hands of 
error, and nourished by the vices of an infatuated population, 
and to throw open a cultivated garden upon which the north 
wind might awake and the south wind blow, to send forth its 
spices for the refreshment of those escaping from the fens and 
marshes that God had devoted to barrenness and destruction ? 
It was to the Domestic Missionary Society that the little 
church, exiled from its sanctuary and crippled by avarice in 
its resources, was early taught to look with a filial confidence. 
It did look there. The tears in its eye were not disregarded. 
The plaintive sigh bursting from its lips was heard, and an- 
swered in accents of love. When it stretched forth its hand 
for bread, it was filled. When it showed its back, given to the 
smiters, and its cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, it 



APPENDIX. 313 

found relief for its wounds, and was no longer confounded, but 
set its face like a flint against all that contended with it. 



II. — See page 285. 
COUNCILS. 

It is a singular fact, that ecclesiastical councils, whose original 
design was solely to harmonize differences and promote fellow- 
ship, should have become the chief sources of discord and 
strife, — as has certainly beeri the case in our own denomination 
for the last three quarters of a century or more, and the cause 
of it is equally apparent. It arises from the false position 
which councils have come to assume in our ecclesiastical sys- 
tem ; or rather from the misapprehension, extensively enter- 
tained, of their true position. It cannot be reasonably supposed, 
that the framers of our Congregational polity ever intended to 
invest a church with complete self-control, and at the same time 
to place it under the authoritative control of other sister churches 
around it. Yet this absurd theory is the only one that fits the 
practice, which we often see attempted in our day. The inevi- 
table consequence is jargon in discussion and conflict in action, 
either among the members composing the council or between 
the parties calling it, if not throughout the wide community 
from which it is called together. Such was not the case once. 
An illustration or two from the records of the past will show 
how completely consonant with the independent and self-govern- 
ing power of a Congregational church were the doings of an 
ecclesiastical council, and how efficient for good such bodies 
were, when confined to the functions originally assigned them. 

Take the following case as it stands in Hubbard's History, 
[2 Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. V. pp. 277-8.] The Dorchester 
church, it appears, desirous of settling a colleague with Mr. 
Mather, called Mr. Burr to that office, having previously received 



314 APPENDIX. 

him into membership for that purpose, agreeably to the usage of 
those terms ; " which call," says the historian, " he deferring to 
accept upon some private reasons known to himself, some of the 
church took some exceptions at some things which he in the 
mean time delivered, (his expressions possibly either not being 
well understood, or so far wiredrawn as that they seemed too 
much inclining to the notions then prevailing in Boston,) and 
they desired him to give satisfaction, and he not seeing need for 
it, it was agreed that Mr. Mather and he should confer together, 
and so the church should know where the difference lay. Ac- 
cordingly Mr. Burr wrote his judgment in the points of difference 
in such manner and terms as from some of his propositions, 
taken singly, something that was Erroneous might be gathered, 
and might seem naturally to follow therefrom ; but was so quali- 
fied in other parts as might admit of a charitable construction. 
Mr. Mather reports to the church the seeming erroneous matter 
that might be collected, without mentioning the qualification, or 
acquainting Mr. Burr with it beforehand. When this w T as 
published, Mr. Burr disclaimed the erroneous matter, and Mr. 
Mather maintained it from his waitings. Whereupon the 
church was divided about it, some joining with the one and 
some with the other, so as it grew to some heat and alienation 
of minds, and many days were spent for reconciliation, but all 
in vain. In the end they agreed to call in help from other 
churches; so as the 2d of February, 1640, there was a meeting 
at Dorchester of the governor, and another of the magistrates, 
and ten of the ministers of the neighboring churches, wherein 
four days were spent in opening the cause, and such offence as 
had fallen out in the prosecution ; and in conclusion they all 
declared their judgment and advice in the case to this effect: — 
" That both sides had cause to be humbled for their failings ; 
Mr. Burr for his doubtful and unsafe expressions, and back- 
wardness to give clear satisfaction ; Mr. Mather for his incon- 
sideration, both in not acquainting Mr. Burr with his collec- 
tions before he published them to the church, and in not certify- 
ing the qualifications of the erroneous expressions which were 



APPENDIX. 315 

in his writings ; for which they were advised to set a day apart 
for reconciliation. Upon this, both Mr. Mather and Mr. Burr 
took the blame of their failings upon themselves, and freely 
submitted to the judgment and advice given, to which the rest 
of the church yielded a silent assent. And God was much 
glorified in the close thereof." 

It should be borne in mind that Mr. Mather was one of the 
chief fathers of New England Congregationalism; that he 
drafted the Cambridge Platform ; and that his views concern- 
ing the " decree of a council " then and always was that it 
" hath so much force as there is force in the reason of it" 
[See his treatise on Church Government, p. 6Q.^ Of course 
the result of this council owed all its influence over him to the 
reasons which went along with it. Had the plea of authority 
been set up, founded on the assumption of power delegated to 
the council by Christ or the churches who sent them, his ready 
answer would have been, You are assembled " to give light, not 
for the imperious binding of the church to rest in your dictates, 
but by propounding your grounds from the Scriptures." [Id. 
p. Q5 t ~\ And had they then proceeded after the fashion of our 
times, both ministers would probably have been dismissed, the 
church rent in twain (each party under the lead of one of these 
antagonist ministers in defiance of the council's authority), and 
a war opened for a generation to come ; while Presbyterians, if 
any were then extant, would have laughed at the " rope of sand," 
" democratic pruriency," etc., in our denomination, and conser- 
vative Congregationalists would have talked gravely about 
" stronger government," " growing disorders," " disregarding 
Christ's authority." But as the business actually proceeded, 
there was a power put forth which the Pope might have cov- 
eted, — a power which, in all its effective issues, interfered in 
not the slightest degree with the self-governing power of the 
church. It was merely opinion and advice, accompanied by 
reasons, and deriving all its authoritative force and executive 
effect from the subsequent vote of the church. 

Coming down about half-way from that day to this, we find 



316 APPENDIX. 

the following result of a council held in Marboro', in 1736. It 
is copied from the private manuscript journal of Rev. Ebenezer 
Parkman, of Westboro' ; and, while it shows a tendency towards 
the modern type of councils, illustrates some important points 
of procedure, the neglect of which has greatly weakened their 
usefulness and efficacy. 

"July 13th. Mr. Wheeler (appointed to be the delegate of 
our church) and Lieutenant Holloway came, and we proceeded 
on our journey to Marlboro'. When Mr. Hall of Sutton, and 
that church's delegates were come, we chose Mr. Baxter mod- 
erator of the council. They were pleased to choose me clerk, 
but I requested that Mr. Hall might be chosen clerk also to 
assist me ; which was done. And then we proceeded to the 
meeting-house. Various hearings of Mr. Frink's grievances 
and the people's answers, but most of all the affair of Captain 
W , etc., took up our time to-day, in public and private. 

"14th. We were so happy as to see the great bone of this 
snarling contention removed, namely, the quarrel between Cap- 
tain W. and his wife on one side, and Captain S. and his wife 
on the other. The two former gave confessions, and the last ; 
but Captain S. was cleared by vote of the church. But the 
great trouble of Mr. Frink's remove remained. 

" 15th. Various hearings of the said complaints of Mr. Frink, 
and the people's defence, and the Irish brethren's affair. Fen- 
ton's case issued in the church, with the assistance of Rev. Mr. 
Hall and Colonel Wm. Ward ; but the council was adjourned 
to Mr. F.'s house, and there kept upon business. The council 
in great perplexity and distress in the evening at the prospect 
of the desperate state of this flock. We dealt plainly and freely 
with Mr. F. when we were favored with opportunity. When 
the brethren came to us to have the hearing of the particulars 
under the sixth article of Mr. F.'s complaint, they were exceed- 
ingly chafed, and impatient with Mr. F. ; were heartily willing 
to throw all the matter in the arms of the council ; for it became 
evident that Mr. F. made a most lame, trifling defence, and 
more and more exposed himself, the more he undertook to de- 



APPENDIX. 317 

fend or prove any thing. Divers of the church resolved not to 
hear Mr. F. again. Matters at a dreadful extremity ! The 
brethren would hy no means hear of our dissolving, and we 
could not adjourn without we provided other preaching for 
them till we should meet again. Eleven or twelve o'clock 
when the church was adjourned. We were not able to sit up 
longer. — Adjourned the council (in great distress of heart) to 
to-morrow morning, six o'clock. 

"16th. Mr. Stone and I had some brotherly, friendly, close 
discourse with Mr. F. When Mr. F. had left us awhile and we 
went to the council, there was a hint as if he began to see things 
in another light. Presently we understood he was humbling him- 
self before the brethren in the chamber, and they were smitten 
with it, and were in tears with him. It was presently proved 
to be so by his and their coming in voluntarily before the coun- 
cil, and on both sides they were very free and full in their 
mutual submissions and forgivenesses. The council were put 
to it to know how to behave on this surprising occasion. Our 
business was to draw up confessions for them both to sign, and 
to prepare our result, as affairs now were, through the won- 
drous power and goodness of God, turned. We went to the 
house of God with joy and rejoicing, — read the confessions and 
our result, — prayed and gave glory to God, and sang Psalm 56, 
from the 17th verse to the end. Mr. F. made a brief speech 
of thanks, etc., as did the brethren. The moderator, with a 
short speech, closed all, and dissolved the council. 

" Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy flame, be 
the glory ; and let thy saints be confirmed in their faith and 
trust in God, who fulfils his gracious promise to his church and 
to his ministers. Lo I am with you always, unto the end of 
the world." 

It will occur to every reader of this extract that councils 
have lost much of that effectiveness which went along with 
their proceedings once. And a moment's reflection will show 
that the loss has been in exact proportion to their assumption — 
express or implied — of judicial authority. Think of a church 



318 APPENDIX. 

kept together till "eleven or twelve o'clock" at night to "issue" 
cases of difficulty, in the light and reason reflected from the de- 
liberations and advice of a council! — neither of these bodies 
dreaming that there was any other authorized way of 'employing 
such help ! 



III. 
CIVIL EIGHTS OF CHURCHES. 

[The following extracts from a report on " The Rights of 
Congregational Churches in their Connection with Parishes," 
presented to the Congregational Library Association after this 
book was written, by Rev. Dr. Pond, of Bangor, Me., are in- 
serted here by permission, and will be read with interest in 
connection with what is said on the legal decisions referred to, 
pages 250, 251.] 

" The doctrine in New England has been, from the first, that 
a Congregational church is a body of professed believers in 
Christ, associated together in solemn covenant for the main- 
tenance of Divine worship and ordinances, and for mutual help 
and benefit in the Christian life. Until the late decisions,* the 
church has always been regarded as a distinct and independent 
body, having the right (which belongs to all voluntary associ- 
ations) of admitting and excluding members, of electing officers, 
of holding and controlling its own property, and, in general, of 
managing its own proper concerns, subject only to the authority 
and will of Christ. It may be associated with a parish in the 
support of public worship, or it may not ; but if so associated 
it is still an independent body, and loses none of its appropriate 
rights and powers. It may not impose a minister on the parish, 
but it has the right to choose its own pastor ; and if church and 

* In the Dedham case and others which followed in its train, from 1820. 



APPENDIX. 319 

parish cannot agree in regard to the person to be set over them, 
they may separate, each retaining its own existence and rights. 
The church has no right to control the property of the parish, 
but only to take care of its own. If it hold property in trust 
for the parish, it must, of course, be faithful to its trust ; but if 
there is no such trust expressed or implied (as we believe there 
seldom, if ever, has been), then it will dispose of its property 
according to its own sense of right and the expressed wishes of 
donors. 

" Such, we repeat, have been the standing and claims of our 
Congregational churches from the first ; and we insist that they 
are reasonable claims. They are no more than the natural 
rights of every organized body ; no more than may be justly 
exercised by any voluntary association whatever. 

" But these claims were annulled and set clean aside by the 
legal decisions above referred to. According to these decisions, 
a church is not a distinct and independent body, but a mere ap- 
pendage to a parish, with which it is essentially and indissolubly 
united. It cannot secede from the parish and live. It may 
think to withdraw, and retain its property and rights ; but it 
cannot do it. It may decide to withdraw, by a strong major 
vote ; but this is a vain effort. Those who go out, go only as 
individuals, leaving the church behind. The few members 
which remain are legally the church ; or if none remain, the 
parish may proceed and gather a church, which shall succeed 
to all the rights and the property of the seceding body. Such 
was the purport of these decisions ; and on the ground of them 
9 church after church was deprived of its property, even to its 
communion furniture and records, from twenty to forty years 
ago. And the same thing may be acted over again, at any 
time ; for these obnoxious decisions have never been revoked, 
nor has relief come to the churches in any other way. 

" The question at issue in regard to these decisions is a very 
simple one, and may be stated in few words. Is a Congre- 
gational church, when duly organized, a distinct and indepen- 
dent body, — a body by itself, having its own appropriate rights 



320 APPENDIX. 

and powers ; or is it, as the courts pretend, the mere creature 
and appendage of a parish, to which it is indissolubly united, and 
from which it cannot separate itself and live ? " . 

After noticing several assertions in support of the latter view, 
the report proceeds. 

" But the constitution of Massachusetts is confidently appealed 
to as ignoring the churches altogether, and giving exclusive 
rights, in the last instance, to precincts or parishes. As this 
argument for the recent decisions is more relied on than any 
other, it will be necessary to examine it w T ith special care. The 
clause of the constitution to which reference is had is in the 
third article of the Bill of Rights, and is as follows : ' The sev- 
eral towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or re- 
ligious societies, shall, at all times, have the exclusive right of 
electing their public teachers, and of contracting with them for 
their support and maintenance.' That this language was in- 
tended by the convention who framed the constitution, and by 
the people who adopted it, to deprive the churches of the right 
of election, is to us incredible ; and for the following reasons : — 

" In the first place, the words of the clause in question do not 
imply it. The constitution says that i towns, parishes, etc., 
shall have, at all times, the exclusive right of electing their pub- 
lic teachers,' etc. And so say we all. It is their natural right, 
and they ought to have it. The church has no right to impose 
a religious teacher, a public officer, upon the town or parish 
against its will. Let the parish have, what the constitution 
gives it, the exclusive right of choosing its own religious teacher. 
But is the exercise of this right on the part of the parish at all % 
inconsistent with the rights of the church ? We think not. 
The parish has a right, by the constitution, to choose a minister 
for itself, but no right to choose a pastor for the church. The 
church is quite another and distinct body, and had always been so 
considered by our fathers ; and the right of one body to choose offi- 
cers for itself conveys no right to choose officers for another body. 

" And as the language of the constitution does not necessarily 
imply that the right of election is taken from the churches, it is 



APPENDIX. 321 

impossible to suppose that the convention which framed it could 
have entertained any such design. For who constituted this 
convention ? We have lately seen and examined a list of the 
members, and find that it was composed, to a large extent, of 
the members and officers of Congregational churches. Num- 
bers who belonged to it, and were ' strenuous advocates for the 
adoption of the third article in the Bill of Rights,' were ministers 
and deacons in these churches. And to show how these minis- 
ters regarded the right of the churches to elect their own pastors, 
we may quote from an ' Address of the Convention of Congre- 
gational ministers of Massachusetts, unanimously offered to the 
consideration of the churches/ in 1773. ' Neither diocesan 
bishops nor lay presbyters, nor magistrates as such, have power 
to appoint officers to a particular church. This is the unalienable 
right of the brethren, by a free election.' Thus said the minis- 
ters of Massachusetts, with one voice, in 1773. Now can we 
reasonably suppose that these very men, or some of them, with 
their deacons and church-members should, in 1780, only seven 
years after, unite in forming a constitution of government, and 
be * the strenuous advocates of it,' which took away the right 
of election from the churches ? Would they take away in 1780, 
what in 1773 they declared to be an ' unalienable right?' 
Would they, by a single clause, divest hundreds of churches of 
a right which had been guaranteed to them by immemorial 
usage, by long established laws, and (as they believed) by 
Christ himself? Would they take from hundreds of associ- 
ations, formed for the most solemn purposes of religion, a right 
.which is claimed by all voluntary associations, — the right of 
electing their own officers, and oblige them to receive as officers, 
as pastors, who should preside in their meetings, administer 
their ordinances, and break to them the bread of life, those 
whom other and foreign bodies, mere civil corporations, should 
please to set over them, or force upon them ? 

" But if we can suppose that a majority of this convention en* 
tertained the design of taking from the churches the right which 
has been mentioned, and that they succeeded in accomplishing 

21 



322 APPENDIX. 

it, we cannot possibly suppose that they succeeded without 
opposition. There would have been opposition. There must 
have been. Even if the ministers and deacons in the conven- 
tion all turned traitors to the churches, and were "' strenuous 
advocates ' for an article which was understood and designed to 
take away their ' unalienable rights/ still, other voices w r ould 
have been raised against it. Objections would have arisen from 
some source. So great an innovation was never effected in 
this country, or in any other, without debate. Had it been said 
by the committee who reported the third article in the Bill of 
Rights, ' To be sure the churches have all along had a distinct 
voice in the election of their pastors ; but to this they are not 
entitled, and they shall have it no longer. The right of election 
must be taken from them, and given to parishes or towns ; ' if 
language such as this had been used, would it have been heard 
without objection or remark ? Would there have been none 
to institute an inquiry, or to raise a note of remonstrance against 
it? Or if we can suppose the third article, thus explained, to 
have passed the convention without debate, and to have gone 
forth to the several towns for their acceptance, would it have 
encountered no opposition from the people ? Is it reasonable 
or possible to suppose it? And yet it is certain that there was 
no opposition to this article from any quarter, on the ground of 
its taking away the right of election from the churches, or in 
any way affecting this right. The third article of the bill of 
rights was more discussed, and more opposed, in convention and 
out of it, than any other part of the constitution ; and yet not a 
whisper of opposition was heard from any source on the ground 
which has been suggested. We have examined an abstract of 
debates in the convention on this very subject ; we have exam- 
ined the returns from the several towns in the Commonwealth 
now lying in the office of the secretary of State, with their re- 
marks upon the constitution in general, and upon this third 
article in particular ; we have examined several volumes of 
newspapers for the years 1779 and 1780, and read all that was 
published in favor of the third article and against it ; and we 



APPENDIX. 323 

fearlessly aver that there was no opposition to it from any 
source, such as might have been expected, on the ground that 
it was understood to take from the churches the natural, imme- 
morial, and unalienable right of electing their own pastors. 

" The grand objection to the third article, at the time of its 
adoption, was not that it injured the churches, but that it was 
too favorable to them ; that it proposed to do too much for them ; 
that it went to enlist the civil authority for their support and 
benefit. It was contended by its advocates, among whom were 
ministers and church-members, that without it ' the churches 
would be in danger.' It was insisted against those who opposed 
it, ' These men mean to set our churches all afloat.' To which 
it was replied on the other hand, ' Why plead for the right of 
the civil magistrate to support the churches of New England 
by law ? The church has a sufficient security without and be- 
yond the civil law. So says the great head of the church to 
his disciples, " I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world." ' We quote here, not only the reasoning, but the very 
language of the times.* 

" And now, to sum all up; can we conceive that this convention, 
composed as it was, to a considerable extent, of ministers, dea- 
cons, and members of the churches ; of men, some of whom, 
only seven years before, declared the churches' right of election 
1 unalienable ; ' of men who were charged with having an un- 
due regard for the churches, and with preparing the article in 
question with a view to their support and benefit; of men who 
could reply to the opposers of this article, i You mean to set our 
churches all afloat ; ' is it possible to conceive that these very 
men, and in this very article, should have designed to take away 
from the churches the i unalienable right ' of electing their 
pastors ? Or if we can suppose them to have intended such a 
thing, is it possible to conceive that the design could have been 
accomplished without, so far as appears, a whisper of opposition 



* See Independent Chronicle for April 13, 1780, also the Boston Ga- 
zette for June 12 and August 14, 1780. 



324 APPENDIX. 

from clergyman or layman, in writing or in debate, before the 
convention or before the people ? He who can frame a suppo- 
sition like this, and satisfy his mind as to the truth of it, need 
have no trouble with his understanding or his conscience after- 
wards. His wishes and his prejudices, as it seems to us, will 
carry him anywhere, and he will be able to believe, with evi- 
dence or without, just as his convenience or his inclinations 
dictate. 

" We have shown that it could not have been the design of the 
framers of the constitution of Massachusetts to take away the 
right of election from the churches. We now go further and 
say that the third article of the Bill of Rights (and this was the 
reason why ministers and church-members were so much in 
favor of it) absolutely secures to the churches this right. The 
article says not only that i towns, parishes, and precincts,' but 
' other bodies politic, or religious societies, shall at all times 
have the right of electing their public teachers,' etc. Now who 
were these ' other bodies politic or religious societies ? ' We 
undertake to say that they were the churches, and that the 
matter was so understood at the time when the constitution was 
adopted. This is evident, first, from the terms employed. That 
our churches are * religious societies,' is evident from the very 
nature and structure of them. They are voluntary associations 
of professedly religious persons, and for purely religious pur- 
poses. Such bodies, surely, may well be denominated 'religious 
societies.' It is also true, that, from the first settlement of the 
country up to the time of the adoption of the constitution, our 
churches had always been regarded as, in some sense, i bodies 
politic,' and not unfrequently this identical phraseology was 
applied to them. Thus Mr. Cotton speaks of the church as < a 
spiritual, political body.' * They are spoken of in the Plat- 
form as ' political churches.' (Chap. V.) Mather calls the 
church i a sacred corporation.' f Mr. Wise repeatedly terms 



* Discourse about Civil Government, page 5. 
t Magnalia, Vol. II. p. 180. 



APPENDIX. 325 

the churches ' incorporate bodies.'* The late Gov. Sullivan 
represents the church as, in a certain point of view, i a civil 
society,' and i a civil corporation.' The editor of Winthrop's 
Journal speaks of each of our churches as ' a body corporate.' 
And what is more to the purpose than either, and in our view 
decisive, in the statute of 1754, reenacted in 1786, only a few 
years after the adoption of the constitution, the churches are 
expressly denominated ' bodies\politic.' In the section, which 
limits the income of church grants, it is provided i that the in- 
come to any one such body politic,' — the identical phrase in 
the third article, — * shall not exceed three hundred pounds 
per annum.' 

"But we have an argument, if possible, more conclusive than 
this. In the discussions attendant upon the formation and 
adoption of the constitution, the ' religious societies ' spoken of 
in the third article were understood to mean churches ; so that 
to churches, as well as to ' towns and parishes,' is secured, by 
the constitution, 'the exclusive right of electing their public 
teachers.' In Boston, the minority offered eight distinct ob- 
jections to the third article in the Bill of Rights. The third of 
these objections was as follows : ' The people have no right to 
invest the legislature with power to authorize and require re- 
ligious societies, etc., because, by religious societies we are to 
understand the churches of Christ, which can receive no author- 
ity, nor be subject to any requisition of any legislature under 
heaven.' f In the returns from Framingham and from Hollis- 
ton, we find this objection quoted and adopted in the same 
words. 

" We quote the following from the Independent Chronicle of 
April 6, 1780. 'Another part of the article, which ought to 
be rejected with abhorrence, is this : u The legislature shall 
have power to authorize and require religious societies to sup- 



* Vindication, etc., pp. 49, 89. 
t See Boston Gazette of May 22, 1780. 



326 APPENDIX. 



- 



port the public worship of God. By religious societies I sup- 
pose we are to understand the churches of Christ."' 

" Of the same import is the following, from the Independent 
Ledger of June 12, 1780: 'My antagonist' (an advocate of 
the third article) ' attempts to get along by saying that the 
legislature have a right to require religious societies or churches 
to perform a civil duty. To which I reply, that the legislature 
may require the members of churches, considered as citizens, to 
perform a civil duty. But as members of churches, or in their 
religious character, they have no authority over them.' . • . 

"Thus far we have examined the principal arguments by 
which the obnoxious decisions of our courts have been defended, 
more especially that drawn from the language of the consti- 
tution. We next proceed to urge objections to these decisions. 

" Our first objection is, — and this alone would be sufficient, if 
there was no other, — that the grand assumption on which these 
decisions are made to rest is contrary to fact. The assumption 
is this, quoting the very words of Chief Justice Parker in the 
Dedham case : 6 A church cannot subsist without some religious 
community to which it is attached. Such has been the under- 
standing of the people of New England from the foundation of 
the colonies.' * Now we insist that this assumption is contrary 
to fact. It is contrary to whole classes of facts, — to thousands 
of them. 'A church cannot subsist but in connection with 
some corporate parish or religious society. Such has been the 
understanding of the people of New England from the foun- 
dation of the colonies.' And yet for many years after the set- 
tlement of New England, there were no parishes in the country, 
nor was parochial power committed to the towns. The church 
here w r as the original body. It preceded the State itself, and 
gave birth to the State. It preceded, by a great way, the 
organization of parishes. Through all this period, the churches 
not only chose their own ministers, but contracted with them 
and supported them. They built and owned the first meeting- 

* Massachusetts Term Reports, Vol. XVI. p. 505. 



APPENDIX. 327 

houses, and had the power of levying and collecting money for 
this object. They assessed and collected money, not merely of 
church-members, but of others. In short, they exercised all 
parochial power. Such power existed nowhere else. It was 
not committed to the towns till 1652, more than twenty years 
after the settlement commenced. Here, then, is one class of 
facts entirely inconsistent with the assumption of the courts. 
The churches actually did exist, and flourished for a course of 
years, without any connected parishes whatever. There were 
no parishes in the country with which they could be connected. 
" Another class of facts inconsistent with the assumption of the 
courts consists in the frequent removal of organized, embodied 
churches, in all periods of our history. The original church at 
Plymouth was not formed after landing, but came into the 
country in an embodied state. The First church in Boston was 
organized in Charlestown, and removed to Boston. The Old 
South church also was organized in Charlestown. The First 
church in Dorchester was formed in England, and removed in 
a body to this country. The same church afterwards removed 
from Dorchester to Windsor, in Connecticut. The First church 
in Newtown (now Cambridge) also removed to Connecticut, 
and was established at Hartford. In both these removals, indi- 
vidual members were left behind ; but, contrary to the doctrine 
of the late decisions, these individuals were not regarded as 
churches. The churches were gone with their pastors, and 
their majorities, and those who remained, were subsequently 
formed into churches, — at Dorchester under Mr. Mather, and 
at Cambridge under Mr. Shepard. The church in Rowley re- 
moved in a body to this country from some part of Yorkshire 
in England. The First church in Wenham removed in 1656, 
and commenced the settlement of Chelmsford. Similar instan- 
ces have occurred during our whole history for the last two 
hundred years ; and how are they to be reconciled with the 
doctrine of the courts, that ' a church cannot subsist but in con- 
nection with a parish,' and that ' such has been the under- 
standing of the people of New England from the foundation of 
the colonies ? ' 



328 APPENDIX. 

" But there is yet another class of facts to be introduced. There 
are at this moment hundreds of Congregational churches in 
different parts of our land, which have no connection with in- 
corporate parishes or religious societies, and never had any. 
Some of these churches are in the cities and in the older 
States, others are in the newly settled parts of our country. 
They own their meeting-houses ; they settle and support their 
ministers ; they exist and they flourish without the help or the 
hinderance of connected parishes ; and thus contradict flatly the 
assumption of the courts, that f a church cannot subsist without 
some religious society to which it is attached.' 

" We object, secondly, to the decisions in question, that they 
are inconsistent with the natural, inherent rights of our churche*. 
Most of the churches are in possession of property, more or less. 
Some of this has been contributed by the members, and some 
they have received from others. But, however acquired, it is 
their own ; and they have a right to dispose of it according to 
their own convictions of duty. Is not this, we ask, the natural, 
inherent right of the churches, as of every other voluntary as- 
sociation ; a right which they may freely exercise without offence 
to any one ? But, by the decisions of our courts, the churches are 
stripped of this inherent right. They cannot any longer do 
what they will with their own. Every church is indissolubly 
bound to some parish or incorporated society, and must submit 
to the will of such -society, or she is robbed of all. She must 
receive just such a pastor, and hear just such a teacher, as the 
parish gives her ; and the most she can do with her money even 
then is to have the trouble of taking care of it, and paying over 
the avails of it to her corporate master. 

"We object, third, to these decisions, that they are inconsistent 
with the corporate rights of the churches. The churches of 
Massachusetts were from the first in the possession of corporate 
rights and powers. They were gathered and organized by law 
and according to law. It was their province to decide, for many 
years, not only who should be eligible to office in the State, but 
who should exercise the rights of a freeman. They assessed 



APPENDIX. 329 

and collected taxes of their members and others, for the building 
of meeting-houses and the supporting of ministers. Their cor- 
porate rights were expressly sanctioned by the legal adoption 
of the Cambridge Platform, according to which they were all 
constituted. And, as though this were not enough, their deacons 
were made a corporation to hold their property in trust for 
them by the act of 1754, and they were empowered to super- 
vise the deacons, and call them to account. But this most equi- 
table intention of the law of 1754 (which was reenacted in 
1786, and is still in force) is entirely set aside, and the corpo- 
rate rights of the churches are annulled by the late decisions. 
For no sooner is there a collision between church and parish, 
and the church is compelled in conscience to withdraw, than the 
parish tells her, * You are bound to us for life, and cannot with- 
draw. You may vote to withdraw, and may go in a majority 
ever so large ; but those who remain will be the church, and 
will retain the property, even to the records. Indeed, if you all 
go, and go by solemn vote, you go only as individuals ; you die 
as a church ; and we are competent to institute a new church, 
which will succeed to all the immunities which you have left.' 
It thus appears that there needs but a collision between church 
and parish, in order to strip the church of every thing, even of 
its existence. And the parish can create a collision at any time ; 
and in many cases would be richly compensated for the violence 
and wrong which it might inflict in doing it. 

" Again : the views we here oppose are wholly inconsistent 
with the independence of our churches. We call ourselves 
Congregationalists or Independents. It was their regard for 
the independence of the churches, which separated our fathers 
from the ecclesiastical establishments of the old world, and 
brought them to this country; and here they filled the land 
with independent churches, each having the power of self- 
organization, preservation, and government ; acknowledging 
submission to no authority but that of the Saviour. Our churches 
still retain the name of Independents ; but nothing more. By 
the late decisions their real independence is quite taken away. 



330 APPENDIX. 

They are in a state of thraldom ; and the reason why they do 
not feel it is, their civil masters have not chosen very recently 
to exercise their power. Every church is indissolubly joined 
to some parish, and let her treatment be what it may, there is 
no divorce. She may vote what she pleases, but there she is. 
She may vote, to an individual, to withdraw, and may try to 
withdraw, but instead of doing so she dies by her own hand, 
and leaves her inheritance to her persecutor. She cannot 
choose her own pastor, her presiding officer, but must be ruled 
and taught by one, and receive the ordinances at the hands of 
one who is set over her by others, it may be, against her con- 
science and will. She must hear such doctrine, and unite in 
such worship as the parish shall direct, and, willing or unwilling, 
her property must go to pay for it. This is not an exaggerated 
account of the civil state of the churches of Massachusetts, ac- 
cording to the late decisions. It is their real state, and every 
church will be made to feel it, as soon as the parish with which 
it is connected is pleased to exert its power. Where then, we 
ask, is the independence of our churches, — that independence 
to secure which our fathers braved the dangers of ocean and 
exile ? It is gone to the shadow, leaving only a name behind. 
" We object, again, to the late decisions of our courts, that they 
are inconsistent with other and previous decisions. Several 
cases, involving the rights of churches, parishes, and ministers, 
were decided in our courts previous to the publication of the 
Term Reports, which commenced in 1804. There was the 
case of Goss vs. The Inhabitants of Bolton, in 1771 ; of Mellen 
vs. The Second Parish in Lancaster, in 1778 ; of Fuller vs. The 
Inhabitants of Princeton, in 1783 ; and of Chaplin vs. The 
Second Parish in Sutton, in 1796. In these cases, such men as 
Judges Dana, Paine, Lowell, and Parsons, and Governors Sulli- 
van and Lincoln, Sen. were employed as counsel. We have 
partial reports of them all, drawn up from notes taken by the late 
Lieutenant-Governor Lincoln at the time. The cases were all 
similar in one respect ; the parish and church claiming that the 
pastor was legally dismissed, and he denying it and suing for 



APPENDIX. 331 

salary. A question like this would not involve directly, as it 
did not, the mutual relations of church and parish. And yet, 
in all the cases, the original standing and rights of the church 
are acknowledged, — a distinct and independent body, and not 
only so, but a corporate body. Thus, in the first case men- 
tioned, Judges Dana and Lowell, who were concerned on oppo- 
site sides in the trial, both admitted the corporate existence of 
the church ; and in accordance with this, the records of the 
church were admitted in evidence. Also in the second case re- 
ferred to, the church is called ' a public corporate body/ In 
the two last cases, which were decided after the adoption of the 
constitution, the same standing and rights were accorded to the 
church. The power of choosing its own pastor was distinctly 
asserted, and from this was inferred the right of dismissing him. 
" After the commencement of the Term Reports, the earliest 
important cases were those of Avery vs. Tyringham, and Burr 
vs. The First Parish in Sandwich. Both these cases were like 
those above noticed, the people claiming that the minister was 
dismissed, and he denying it and bringing a suit for salary. 
The latter case was decided by Chief Justice Parsons, and on 
several points is in direct conflict with the positions of Chief 
Justice Parker in the Dedham case. For example, Chief Jus- 
tice Parker decides that ' the only circumstance which gives a 
church any legal character is its connection with some regularly 
constituted society/ and that it cannot subsist without some such 
society to which it is attached. But in the Sandwich case, 
Chief Justice Parsons says : ' We have to decide upon the 
nature and powers of a Congregational church, as distinct from 
a parish,' and tells us that, ' a church and a parish are bodies 
with different powers.' Chief Justice Parker tells us (what 
every Congregational minister knows to be false) that those 
who withdraw from a society cease to be members of that par- 
ticular church with which the society is connected. But Chief 
Justice Parsons says, ' The members of a church are generally 
inhabitants of the parish ; but this inhabitancy is not a neces- 
sary qualification for a church-member.' Chief Justice Parker 



332 appendix. 

tells us more than once, that the church is a mere trustee for 
the parish, and holds its property for the use of the parish. 
But Chief Justice Parsons says : ' The deacons are made a cor* 
poration to hold property for the use of the church, and they 
are accountable to the members.' Of these contradictory de- 
cisions, those of Chief Justice Parsons seem to us to be much 
nearest to the truth. 

"We further object, that, under the decisions of which we com- 
plain, cases of extreme hardship have sometimes occurred, and 
are liable to occur again. Without calling names, we must be 
permitted to cite one or two examples. 

" Here was a church in which a sum of money had accumu- 
lated from the stated contributions at the Lord's table. As it 
was lying useless in the hands of the deacons, it was thought 
best to purchase with it a piece of land, to be holden by the 
church, and to be improved under the direction and for the 
benefit of the pastor. The plan was carried into effect, and the 
land came legally into the possession of the deacons, to be held 
by them in trust for the church. Every thing was transacted 
harmoniously, and the plan proved to be a very good one during 
the ministry of the existing pastor. But after his decease, the 
church and parish disagreed. The parish undertook to impose 
a pastor on the church of different sentiments from those of the 
members, and (as many believed) of immoral life. The church 
remonstrated and entreated, but to no purpose. Supported by 
the late decisions, the parish would have its own way. The 
obnoxious minister was settled, and the church had no alternative 
but to withdraw. It was hard for them to leave their pews 
and their house of worship, but under the circumstances they 
thought it harder to remain. They voted, therefore, by a large 
majority, to withdraw. But they were soon given to understand 
that they could not withdraw except as individuals, and that if 
they left in this way, they must leave all their property, even 
to their communion furniture and records, behind them. In 
these circumstances, what should these brethren do? They 
knew their property was their own ; they had purchased it with 



APPENDIX. 333 

their own money ; it was held in trust for them by their own 
deacons ; the parish had no more right to it than they had to 
the clothes on the church-members' backs. But what, we ask 
again, could these distressed brethren do ? They could submit, 
and suffer. They could take the spoiling of their goods. They 
could in patience possess their souls, and wait for justice at a 
higher tribunal than that of their country. 

" To show the workings of these unfortunate decisions, we 
give another example. Here was a feeble church and society, 
situated in a large and wealthy town. They had struggled 
through many difficulties and much opposition, but they had 
been united among themselves, and had succeeded in maintaining 
the ordinances of the gospel. At length one of the best and 
wealthiest members of the church died, and left a considerable 
portion of his estate duly and legally secured to the church. 
No trust or use was expressed in the legacy, but it was to go 
in succession, and • the income to be appropriated by a vote of 
the church. Not long afterwards, some of the inhabitants of 
the town were seized with a great desire to have the manage- 
ment of this property. So they contrived one after another to 
get into the society, and as soon as they were sufficiently strong 
they drove away the minister and settled one after their own 
liking. The church did all they could to prevent it, but they 
were disregarded and overwhelmed, and the society's minister 
was settled. Still, the church supposed that they might with- 
draw, retain their property, and reestablish the minister who 
had so long and so faithfully served them. But what was their 
astonishment and grief when they found that even this last re- 
source of the afflicted was denied them. They could not with- 
draw but as individuals ; and in doing this, they must commit 
ecclesiastical suicide, and leave their inheritance to their perse- 
cutors. . And the legacy of their dear brother, on whose grave 
the grass had scarcely begun to grow, must be perverted to the 
support of a ministry which he would have abhorred. 

" We hope, indeed, that instances like those here cited will not 
often occur in Massachusetts, under any civil regulations. But 



'• 



334 APPENDIX. 

why should they ever occur ? And especially, why should they 
under the sanction of judicial decisions which have the force of 
law? Better have no laws on the subject, than laws which hold 
out, not merely license, but encouragement to wrong. 

" We only add, that the judicial decisions here remarked upon 
have not been ^generally acquiesced in, and will not be. They 
were not in the case of the church in Dedham, nor in any of the 
cases which have occurred since. By a vast majority of the 
good people of Massachusetts who know any thing of the cir- 
cumstances, the church which separated from the First parish 
in Dedham has been, is, and will be considered and denominated 
the First church in that ancient town. It is the First church, 
and no court on earth can make it otherwise. And the same 
may be said of all other like cases. Much as our good people 
are disposed to respect the decisions of their judges, they will 
not believe, for they cannot, that when a church votes, by a 
large majority, to withdraw from a parish, and by a large ma- 
jority does withdraw, that still it leaves itself behind ! ! 

" These decisions were not acquiesced in at the time by some 
of the ablest lawyers in the State, nor are they now. It is well 
known that the late Hon. Daniel Webster was always dissatisfied 
with them. He often said to his friends that he hoped the time 
would come when he should be able to do something for the 
churches, to restore to them their rights as corporate and inde- 
pendent bodies. 

" In a letter from one of the judges of Maine, received in the 
year 1829, the writer says: 'The Dedham case was a bold 
stroke. It astonished me. I first saw it merely touched upon 
in a Boston newspaper ; and in a letter to one of the judges I 
asked whether the statement in the newspaper could be cor- 
rect. I told him that I hoped not ; for, if correct, it seemed to 
me a declaration of war against all evangelical churches.' 

" In a letter from a distinguished lawyer in the eastern part of 
Massachusetts, in the same year, referring to the Dedham case, 
the writer says : ' This strange and unexpected decision, which 
has shocked the plain sense of good men wherever it has been 



APPENDIX. 335 

known, has never been well received, or acquiesced in by the 
bar, or by intelligent lawyers of the Commonwealth. The doc- 
trine by which the decision is attempted to be supported, ap- 
pears to us not less novel, strange, and untenable than the 
decision itself, and we regard both doctrine and decision in the 
light of mere assumption, or, what is quite as offensive, of judi- 
cial legislation.' 

11 The argument of the Hon. Lewis Strong, presented in writing 
in the Brookfield case, by which he endeavored to refute the 
doctrine of the previous decisions, and prevent the further 
plundering of our churches, is proof conclusive as to the light 
in which the matter was viewed by him.* 

" But we will not protract this discussion further. We have 
examined the doctrine of the late decisions, have exposed the 
principal arguments by which they are supported, and have 
urged, at some length, our objections to them. We have en- 
deavored to do it with all plainness and fairness, and yet with 
a degree of earnestness such as the magnitude of the cause de- 
mands. We have imputed no improper motives to the honor- 
able judges by whom these decisions have been framed. We 
have said nothing to impeach their professional ability, or their 
qualifications for the high offices which they sustain. But they 
are liable, like other men, to be mistaken. They are specially 
liable to mistake on a subject like this, — a subject which they 
are not often called to consider, and with which their ordinary 
professional duties have no tendency to make them acquainted. 
They evidently do not understand the nature and just rights 
of a Congregational church. They do not appreciate the claims 
of these divine, these venerable institutions, and the importance, 
not only to religion but the State, of upholding and encouraging 
them, instead of crushing them." 

* See Pickering's Reports, Vol. X. p. 172. j 



INDEX OF CHCRCHES. 



church, 124: 

Adam 567; South. 

A 1 ford, 20] 

Mil]-;, 
d M- 

. . ! 

orMj, 257. 

257: North, '. 27& 

jUbtmrnham, 17 278, 

247, 

!80. 

260- 

Auburn, 201. 

Ban j 

I 

\ 

\ 

22 



.'■('■■:, )</) Md 216 

< 
en St., 266, 277, and 

207 ; J',', 

257: Pan 

. 3*7; 

. ,.'jj>'i (Unit 

277 

270; 
rch of the i 
.-/, 216; Unit,, 2*0, 

151 

244, 

126; Trio,, 256; Scot- 

Jano 

187. 

I 

160, 

1 J2. 



333 



INDEX OF CHURCHES. 



Charlton, 191. 

Charlemont, West, 216 ; East, 278. 

Charlestown, First, 15; Second, 246; 
Winthrop, 267; Bethesda, 278. 

Chatham, 127. 

Chelmsford, 44; Unit., 260. 

Chelsea, Winnisimmet, 277; Broad- 
way, 279; Plymouth, 280. 

Chester, 215 ; Factories, 278. 

Chesterfield, 192. 

Chicopee, 174; Falls, 259; Cabot, 267. 

Chilmark, 125. 

Clinton, 278. 

Cohasset, 136; Trim, 256. 

Colerain, 163. 

Concord, 16; Trim, 257. 

Conway, 192. 

Cummington, 201 ; Village, 269 ; West, 
269. 

Dalton, 216. 

Dana, 268; Centre, 279. 

Danvers, North, 95; South 124; Unit., 

257; Maple St., 278. 
Dartmouth, 233. 
Dedham, First, 18; West, 150; South, 

151; Unit., 246. 
Deerfield, 95; South, 246; Trim at the 

Centre, 268 ; Monument, 279. 
Dennis, North, 138; South, 246; Trin. 

at the North, 259. 
Dighton, First, 113; South, 233. 
Dorchester, First, 7 and 16; Second, 

233; Third (Unit.), 246; Village, 

259 ; Neponset, 278. 
Douglas, 162 ; East, 267. 
Dover, 191; Trim, 269. 
Dracut, East, 136; West, 253; Cen- 
tral, 279. 
Dudley, 149. 

Dunstable, 175; Unit., 260. 
Duxbury, 15. 

East Bridgewater, 137; Trin. Union, 

279. 
Eastham, 34. 

Easthampton, 216; Payson, 279. 
Easton, 137 ; Unit., 269. 
Edgartown, 31. 
Egremont, 193 and 246. 
Enfield, 217. 
Erving, 267. 
Erving>ville, 268. 
Essex, 94, 162, and 202. 

Fairhaven, 225 ; Central, 277. 

Fall River, Mr. Brett's ch., 162 and 

202; present First, 245; Unit., 266; 

Central, 277. 



Falmouth, 113; East, 256; North, 

267; Waquoit, 279. 
Fitchburg, 192; Unit., 256; Third, 277. 
Florida, 245. 
Foxboro', 201. 
Framingham, 112; Unit., 259; Saxon- 

ville, 268. 
Franklin, 151 ; South, Union, 280. 
Freetown, Assonet, 233. 

Gardner, 216; Trim, 259. 

Georgetown, 149. 

Gill, 225. 

Gloucester, First, 33 ; West, 125 ; Trin. 
at the West, 259 ; Trim at the har- 
bor, 259 ; North, 259. 

Goshen, 201. 

Grafton, 148; Unit., 257. 

Granby, West, 191 ; Centre, 257. 

Granville, East, 162 ; West, 215. 

Great Barrington, 161; Housatonic, 
277. 

Greenfield, First, 175; Second, 247; 
Unit, 257. 

Greenwich, 163. 

Groton, 61; Unit, 257. 

Groveland, 138. 

Hadlev, First, 44; North, 266; Rus- 
sell, 277. 

Halifax, 149. 

Hamilton, 124. 

Hanover, 138; Four-corners, 280. 

Hanson, 163. 

Hardwick, 151; Unit, 258, 

Harvard, 149 ; Trin., 256. 

Harwich, 162; Port., 280. 

Hatfield, 62. 

Haverhill, First, 34; West, 150; North, 
158; East, 161; Central, 267; Win- 
ter St., 269. 

Hawley, 201. 

Heath, First, 216 ; Second, 278. 

Hebronville, Union, 258. 

Hingham, First, 16 ; South, 162 ; Third, 
233; Trin., 279. 

Hinsdale, 225. 

Holden, 161. 

Holland, 192. 

Holliston, 138. 

Holyoke, First, 225 ; Second, 279. 

Hopkinton, 137. 

Hubbardston, 193; Unit, 258. 

Hull, 33 and 202. 

Huntington, 201; Village, 278. 

Ipswich, First, 15; South, 162; Line- 
brook, 163 and 279. 

Kingston, 127; Trin. 258. 



INDEX OF CHURCHES. 



339 



Lancaster, 45; Trin., 269. 

Lanesboro', 192. 

Lawrence, First, 279 ; Central, 279. 

Lee, 201. 

Leicester, 136 ; Unit., 268. 

Lenox, 193. 

Leominster, 161 ; Trin., 256. 

Leverett, 201. 

Lexington, First, 103; Second, 269. 

Lincoln, 162. 

Littleton, 126; Trin., 269. 

Longmeadow, 125 ; East, 259. 

Loudon, 201. 

Lowell, First, 257; Unit., 260; Apple- 
ton St., 260; John St., 267; Kirk 
St., 278; High St., 278. 

Ludlow, 217; Jenksville, 279. 

Lunenburg, 138 ; Trin., 268. 

Lynn, First, 14 ; Unit.,256 ; Central, 279. 

Lynnfield, 127; South, 280. 

Maiden, First, 34; Second, 150 and 
226; South, 279. 

Manchester, 34. 

Mansfield, 151; Trin., 269. 

Marblehead, First, 95 ; Second, 125. 

Marlboro', First, 61; West, 233; Unit., 
267. 

Marshfield, South, 15 ; North, 152 ; Trin., 
268. 

Marshpee, 62. 

Medfield, 44; Trin., 258. 

Medford, First, 124; Second, 256; 
Mystic,- 279. 

Medway, East, 125; West, 163; Vil- 
lage, 269 ; Unit, East, 269. 

Melrose 279 

Mendon' 61;' South, 193; Trin., 258. 

Methuen, 138 ; Second, 197 and 247. 

Middleboro', 103; North, 161; West, 
163; Central, 279. 

Middlefield, 216. 

Middleton, 139. 

Millbury, First, 162 ; Second, 257. 

Milford, 160. 

Milton, 78; Unit., 268; Second Evan- 
gelical, 278. 

Monson, 191. 

Montague, 175. 

Montgomery, 225. 

Mt. Washington, 266. 

Nantucket, 123. 

Natick, 232; South, 259. 

Needham, East, 127 ; West, 225 ; Grant- 

ville, 278; East Evang., 280. 
New Bedford, First, 105; North, 233; 

Unit., 234; South, 260; Pacific, 278. 
New Braintree, 175. 



Newbury, First, 16; Byfield, 112; Mr. 
Noble's, 191 and 219. 

Newburyport, First, 138; Presbyte- 
rian, 162 ; North, 192 ; Temple St., 
225; Bellville, 233; Whitefield, 279. 

New Marlboro', 161; South, 225. 

New Salem, 161; North, 256; South 
Evangelical, 278. 

Newton, Centre, 61 ; West, 215 ; Eliot, 
278; AuburrKlale, 279. 

Northampton JpO ; Unit., 257; Edwards, 
267. *£ 

Northboro', 162; Trin., 267. 

Northbridge, 215 ; Whitinsville, 267. 

North Bridgewater, 151; South,- 268; 
Porter Evang., 279. 

North Brookfield, 174; Union, 280. 

North Chelsea, 125; Trin., 258. 

Northfield, 126; Trin., 257. 

North Reading, 127. 

Norton, 124; Trin., 266. 

Oakham, 192; Unit., 258 and 260. 
Orange, North, 115; Trin., 278; South, 

278. 
Orleans, 126. 
Otis, 234. 
Oxford, 136. 

Palmer, First, 139 ; Second, 279. 

Pawtucket, 259. 

Paxton, 192. 

Pelham, 162, 260, and 268. 

Pembroke, 124. 

Pepperell, 162 ; Unit., 266. 

Peru, 193. 

Petersham, 151; Trin., 256; Storrs- 

ville, 268. 
Phillipston, 266. 
Pittsfieid, First, 192 ; Second, 233 and 

247; African, 278; South, 279, 
Plainfield, 216. 
Plymouth, First, 3 ; Second, 151 ; Mr. 

Frink's, 161 and 202; Third, 232; 

Chiltonville, 247 ; Robinson, 259. 
Plympton, 103. 
Prescott, 256. 
Princeton, 192 ; Unit., 246. 
Provincetown, 124. 

Quincy, First, 18; Trin., 267. 

Randolph, West, 148; East, 246; 

Winthrop, 280. 
Raynham, 148; Unit., 258. 
Reading, First, 193; Bethesda, 279. 
Rehoboth, 136. 
Richmond, 192. 
Rochester, First, 112; Mattapoisett 

152; North, 175; Centre, 258. 



340 



INDEX OF CHURCHES. 



Rockport, First, 175 ; Second, 280. 

Rowe, 215; Trin., 268. 

Rowley, 18. 

Roxbury, First, 14; Eliot, 277; Vine 

St., 280. 
Royalston, 192; South, 268. 
Russell, 225. 
Rutland, 138. 

Salem, First, 6 ; East, 126 ; Taberna- 
cle, 150; North, 200; South, 201; 
Howard St., 233 ; Independent Unit., 
256; Crombie St., 267. 

Salisbury, First, 17 ; Second, 126. 

Sandisfield, 175. 

Sandwich, First, 17; Second, 149 and 
202; Unit., 244; Monemet, 267; Pu- 
ritan, 278. 

Saugus, 152. 

Scituate, 16 and 18 ; Unit., 257. 

Seekonk, 33. 

Sharon, i60; Unit., 246. 

Sheffield, 150. 

Shelburn, 193; Falls, 279. 

Sherborn, 95 ; Unit., 259. 

Shirley, 191; Trin., 258. 

Shrewsbury, 137. 

Shutesbury, 152. 

Somerville, 279. 

Southampton, 161. 

Southboro', 139; Trin., 266. 

Southbridge, 232. 

South Hadley, 149; Falls, 256. 

South Reading, 34; Unit, 259. 

South Scituate, 33. 

Southwick, 200. 

Spencer, 161. 

Springfield, First, 17; Unit., 247; 
Olivet, 267; South, 277; North, 
278; Indian Orchard, 279. 

Sterling, 161; Trin., 279. 

Stockbridge, 149;, Curtisville, 256. 

Stoneham, 138. 

Stoughton, 161; Unit, 257. 

Stowe, 105; Trin., 269. 

Sturbridge, 151. 

Sudbury, 18. 

Sunderland, 126. 

Sutton, 127. 

Swampscott, 278. 

Taunton, West, 13; Unit, 224; Trin., 

266; Winslow, 268; East, 279. 
Templeton, 175 ; Trin., 266. 
Tewksburv, 151. 

Tisbury, West, 78; Spring St., 278. 
Tolland, 225. 
Topsfield, 34. 

Townsend, 149; Unit., 259. 
Truro, First, 123; North, 277. 



Tyngsboro', 217. 
Tyringham, 163. 

Upton, 150. 

Uxbridge, 148; Unit, 267. 

Wales, 247. 

Walpole, 139; Trin., 257. 

Waltham, 104; Trin., 247; Second 

Trin., 279. 
Watertown, 8 ; Phillips, 280. 
Ware, West, 174; Village, 257. 
Wareham, 152. 
Warren, 161. 

Warwick, 175; Trin., 258. 
Washington, 200. 
Wayland, 137; Trin., 258. 
Webster, 269. 
Wellfleet, 139; South, 267. 
Wendall, 201. 
Wenham, 33, 44, and 60. 
Westboro', 137; Unit, 268. 
West Bridgewater, 61; Union Trin., 

257. 
WestBrookfield, 126. 
West Boylston, 225; Unit, 256. 
West Cambridge, 151; Trin., 277. 
Westfield, First, 78; Second, 280. 
Westford, 138; Trin., 258. 
Westhampton, 201. 
Westminster, 161. 
West Newbury, 104; Second, 148. 
Weston, 113. 
Westport, 246. 
West Roxbury, First, 124; Jamaica 

Plain, 193; South, 268; Mather, 279. 
West Springfield, First, 104; Feeding- 
hills, 191 ; Agawam, 247 ; Mettinea- 

que, 279. 
West Stockbridge, 217; Village, 267. 
Weymouth, North, 16; South, 137; 

Union, South, 277; Pilgrim, 279. 
Whately, First, 200 ; Second, 277. 
Wilbraham, North, 160; South, 216. 
Williamstown, 192; College, 267; 

South, 268. 
Williamsburg, 200 ; Haydenville, 279. 
Wilmington, 149. 

Winchendon, South, 192; North, 278. 
Winchester, 269. 

Windsor, 200 ; Savoy ch., 244 and 247. 
Woburn, 31; Second, subsequently 

reunited, 162 ; North, 279. 
Worthington, 200. 
Worcester, Old South, 126 ; Unit, 216 ; 

Centre, 247; Union, 268; Salem'St, 

279. 
Wrentham, 103; North, 225. 

Yarmouth, First, 18; West, 269. 



GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, organized at Bran- 
ford, 236. 

Amherst College, when founded, and why, 263. 

Andover Theological Seminary, its origin and aim, 236. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, his tyrannical administration, 97-102. 

Antinomian controversy, its rise and results, 24-27. 

" Apology for the Liberties of the Churches," by S. Mather, 153, 154. 

Arminianism, how introduced. — Its progress recited by the efforts of Edwards, 
and arrested by revival which followed, 154-156. — Breaks out anew, 
179. 

Baptists, their rise, early character, and treatment, 62-65. — Gather a church 

in Swanzey first, then in Boston, 63. — Advocates of religious freedom, 

122. 
Baptism of children, controversy about them, which leads to the Half-way 

covenant, 69-73. 
Baylie, Robert, his " Dissuasive," and John Cotton's answer noticed, 10. 
Boston churches broken up by the Revolutionary war, 217. 
Biographical notices of the first ministers and magistrates, 56-59. 
Bourne, Richard, his labors for the Indians, 47. 
Branch churches, the theory of their formation, 95, 96. 
Brewster, at Scrooby, 4. — Not authorized to administer the sacraments by 

virtue of his ruling eldership, 6. 

Calvinism, the basis of religious doctrine among the Puritans, 289. 
Cambridge Platform, how made, 39-41. — Discrepancies accounted^for, 42. — 

Compared with later plans of church-government, 214, 252, 283. 
Churches, how constituted in early times, 6-10. — Interference of the General 

Court resisted and explained, 20-22. — Their connection with the State, 

in what sense a reality, 13, 22, 67-69. — Denied their civil rights, 249, 250. 

— Their consequent increase, 255. 
Cmirch covenants, variously constructed and adopted, 11, 12. — Renewed in 

1679, 92. 
u m Common consent " (6(io$vfiadov) as a principle of church-government in 

early times, explained by John Cotton, 284, 285. 



342 GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 

Conference of churches instituted, 264. 

Congregationalism of New England, its influence on Old England, 10. — Its 
relation to republican institutions, 13, 109, 120, 290. 

Congregational Charitable Society incorporated, 223. 

Congregational Library Association, its origin and aims, 286-288. 

Convention of Congregational ministers, how it sprang up, 128-131. 

Consociation, attempted by the synod of 1662, 73; by the Boston Association, 
115-120; by the General Association of Massachusetts, 252, 253. 

Councils, their functions described by S. Mather, 153, 154, and by John Cot- 
ton, 285. — See Appendix II. for further illustrations. 

Davenport, John, his resistance to the Half-way covenant, 72. 
Davenport, James, his disorderly conduct, 167-169. 
Dead Orthodoxy, the inlet of Unitarianism, 185. 
Declensions of religion, bewailed, 88, 139, 140. 
Decision of the civil courts against the rights of churches, 250. 
Denominations compared, 193, 218, 226, 282. 

Disclosure of Unitarianism, and the excitement it produced, 248, 249. 
Disorders connected with the revival of 1740, 167. 

Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts formed, 251. — United with 
the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, 261. 

Earthquake, its religious influence powerful but transitory, 141. 

Edwards, Jonathan, his part in the " Great Awakening," 155. — Is opposed 
by Dr. Chauncy, 172. — His removal from Northampton, 178. — His letter 
to Professor Wigglesworth on the symptoms of Unitarianism, 181. 

Eliot, John, his labors among the Indians, 47, 48. 

Episcopacy, how introduced into New England, 97. 

Extinct churches, the causes specified, 281. 

Family prayer-meetings previous to the revival of 1740, 159. 
Forefathers' Day, a chronological error detected, 5. 
French war retards church extension, 127. 

Freeman, Dr. James, the first Boston minister to avow Unitarianism, 220. 
Fuller, Dr. Samuel, of the Plymouth church, his agency in propagating Con- 
gregationalism in Salem, Boston, and Dorchester, 7-9. 

Gathering of churches, how done in early times, 21, 22. 

General Association of Massachusetts organized, 237. — Its acts, 241. 

Goffe, William, the regicide, his adventures, 73-75. — Letter from Mrs. Goffe 
to her husband, 76, 77. 

Goss, Rev. Thomas, his controversy with the Bolton church, 212. 

11 Great Awakening," its origin at Northampton, 154. — Renewed under White- 
field and Tennent, 165-167. — "Testimony" against in the Convention, 
169. — " Testimony and Advice " in its favor from the ministers of ^few 
England, 170. — Estimate of its results, 172, 173. 

Half-way covenant, 71-73 and 82-87. 

Harvard College founded, 28-30. — Passes over to Unitarianism, 235. 



GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 343 

Higginson, Rev. Francis, not a separatist till his arrival at Salem, 7. 
Home Missions, first form, 96. — Second form. — Third form, 242. 
Hopkins, Dr. Samuel, assails the tax theology of Boston, 107. 

Indian churches, 45, 79. — Missions, and their fruits, 40-50, 79. — Misstatement 
of Hutchinson on the subject, 49. 

Independents, their powerful cooperation in overthrowing tyranny in Eng- 
land, 10. 

Intolerance of the first settlers examined, 65-69. 

Judgments of God, leading to repentance and reformation, 89, 90. 
Juridical power lodged with the brotherhood of each church, 290. 

King Philip's war, 78-81. — His character, 80. 

Laud, Archbishop, his plans for subjugating New England, 27. 

Lay ordination, 32. 

Lechford, Thomas, his testimony concerning the character of the first settlers 
of New England, 30. 

License to preach, originally given by churches, 116. — Transferred to minis- 
terial bodies, 228. 

Lord's Supper, views of Solomon Stoddard concerning it, 121. 

Manual of church-discipline proposed in 1844, but not adopted by the 

churches, 283. 
Mayhew, Governor, his labors among the Indians, 47. 
Meeting-houses, how built in early times, 208. 
Methodists, their first appearance in Massachusetts, and rapid increase, 226, 

227. 
Ministers, character of the first, 19. — Their influence in civil affairs, 37 and 

205. — Catechizing the young, 38. — How supported at first, 38; and the 

reasons for it, 54. — Encouraged the Revolutionary war, 200. — Specimens 

of their preaching on the subject, 207-209. 
Missionary Societies organized, namely, lierkshire and Columbia, 229. — 

Mass. Home Miss. Soc, 229. — Hampshire Miss. Soc, 242. — A. B. C. 

F. M., 230.— Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 243. — Dom. Miss. Soc. 

of Mass., 251. 
Missionary Magazine and Herald, 243. 

"Narrative of Surprising Conventions," 150. 

Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine, 243. 

Pastoral Association formed, 286. 

Plan of union with Presbyterians, 241. 

" Praying Indians," 49. 

Presbyterianhm, attempt to infuse it into the Cambridge Platform, 42; and 
into the churche-, 152. — First Presbyterian church gathered, 104. — 
Fraternal feeling- between this denomination and Congregationalisms, 105. 

" Puritan Commonwealth," by Mr. Oliver, reviewed, 110. 



344 GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 

Quakers, their arrival in Massachusetts, 52. — Their disorderly conduct, and 
the treatment it received, 52, 53. 

Randolph, Edward, his oppressive acts, 97. 

Regicides, Whailey and Goffe, 73-77. 

Revolutionary war, unfavorable influence of it on the state of religion and 

morals, 219, 220. 
Revivals of religion, 91, 92, 154-159, 230, 231. 
Robinson, John, his influence in shaping New England institutions, 6. — His 

mode of church-discipline, 284. 
Roman Catholics, their first establishment, 218. 
Ruling elders, 93. 

Sabbath, the first kept by the Pilgrims in New England, 5. 
Salaries of ministers inadequate, and complained of, 144-146. 
" Separatists," their origin and disorders, 168. 
Sewall, Chief Justice, his resistance to Andros, 100. 
Society for Propagating the Gospel, how originated, 49, 50. 
" Spirit of the Pilgrims," 263. 

Synod of 1637, to settle the Antinomian controversy, 25-28; of 1662, on the 
subject of baptism, 71-73; of 1679, for reforming morals, 87-92. 

Testimony against the revival of 1740, 169 ; in favor of it, 170. 
Theatricals first introduced, 228. 
Treat, Rev. Samuel, his labors among the Indians, 48. 
Tupper, Captain Thomas, an account of his Indian labors, 47. 

Union of church and state, in what sense, 13-22; 66-68. 

Unitarianism, first symptoms of it in Boston. — Gradual development, 185, 
197. — Why it did not come into controversy sooner, 199. 

Unitarian controversy opened, 248. — How conducted, 260. — Ended, 269. — Re- 
sults, 270-275. 

Universalism introduced, 202. 

Virginia settled by Episcopalians, 5. — Ministers sent there from Massachusetts, 
50. — And expelled, 51. 

Ware, Rev. Henry, appointed professor at Cambridge, 235. 

Whailey the regicide arrives at Boston, 73. 

Whitaker, Dr. Nathaniel, his refutation of John Wise, 227. 

Whitefield, his first visit to New England, 165. — Second visit, and the opposition 
he encountered, 170. 

Wiggles worth, Professor, his efforts to guard Harvard College against Unita- 
rianism, 182-184. 

Williams, Roger, not a Baptist, 64, 65. 

Wise, Rev. John, resists the tyranny of Andros, and is imprisoned, 102.— Op- 
poses consociation, 115-120. 

Witchcraft at Salem, 105-108. 






• 



I 






Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



